Cape Town - Harsh Dubey and Ravi Bishnoi shared six wickets between them to help the India under-19s claim an emphatic, 157-run victory over the South Africa under-19s in the opening match of the Youth ODI Quadrangular series in Trivandrum on Tuesday.
After being asked to bowl first, South Africa did well to bowl the home side out for 251 runs. Marco Jansen was the pick of the bowlers, returning impressive figures of four for 30 in response to Shashwat Rawat (64) and Qamran Iqbal’s (60) half-centuries.
Chasing a competitive total, the visitors struggled to score from the onset and the pressure from the bowlers told with the fall of regular wickets seeing them bundled out for 94 in 35.4 overs despite Jansen’s valiant and unbeaten 33 off 57 deliveries.
Dubey and Bishnoi were the chief destroyers for India, taking 3/7 and 3/27 respectively.
The hosts got their innings off to a solid start thanks to a 59-run stand between Iqbal and Yashasvi Jaiswal before Lifa Ntanzi (1/37) made the breakthrough. Iqbal then teamed up with Arjun Azad (21), going on to record his fifty, to help their side reach three figures before Nonelela Yikha (2/37) struck in quick succession, removing both batsmen.
Rawat and Dhruv Jurel (38) went one better than their teammates, combining for a 72-run, fifth-wicket partnership to take India passed the 200 mark before timely wickets from Andile Mogakane (1/26), Achille Cloete (1/37) and Jansen slowed the run rate. The latter went on to nab three more wickets in the last over of the innings, the hosts going from 204-5 to being dismissed for 251.
South Africa’s innings at the crease began at a slow rate. The opening bowlers were not giving much away in terms of runs, resulting in the home side’s attack turning that foothold in the game into early wickets. Akesh Singh (2/12) grabbed two wickets at the front before the spin-duo of Dubey and Bishnoi made serious inroads in the middle-order. The pair picked up six wickets between them to leave the tourists reeling on 69/8 in 29 overs.
Although Jansen showed some fight with the willow, dispatching three fours and a six. The tall bowling all-rounder ran out of partners after leg-spinner, Jaiswal (1/10) and Kartik Tyagi (1/17) wrapped up the disappointing outing for South Africa to confirm the convincing win.
Following their triumph, India U19s have five points on the series-log alongside the India U19s “B”, who defeated Afghanistan by seven wickets in their opening match. South Africa and Afghanistan will look to bounce back in the next round of matches, which take place on Thursday, March 7.
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