The Indian cricket team continued their dominance in the warm-up games of the ICC Under-19 World Cup 2022, beating Australia by nine wickets having earlier defeated the West Indies.
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The Indian cricket team has made an emphatic statement in the ICC Under-19 World Cup 2022. After having beaten the West Indies by a big margin in their first warm-up game, the Indian cricket team hammered Australia by nine wickets while chasing 269. The wins in both the warm-up games at Providence, Guyana, have meant that the Indian cricket team is strong contender to win the ICC Under-19 World Cup for a record fifth time. The Indian side has won the ICC Under-19 World Cup four times, with two wins in 2012 and 2018 as well as finals appearances in 2016 and 2020.
The India Under-19 Cricket Team won the toss and chose to bowl against Australia. They started off brilliantly with Ravi Kumar and Rajvardhan Hangargekar getting the openers cheaply. Australian skipper Cooper Connolly then led from the front and steadied the Australian innings. Connolly shared vital partnerships to revive Australia. He shared a partnership of 62 with Campbell Kellaway. But, his stand of 66 with Tobias Snell gave Australia a boost. Connolly smashed a century and his knock of 117 included 14 fours and four sixes.
However, India struck at the death at regular intervals. Ravi Kumar took 4/34 and Rajvardhan Hangargekar took 3/53 as Australia was restricted to 268 in 49.2 overs.
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India made a fast start with Harnoor Singh and Angriksh Raghuvanshi sharing a 74-run stand for the opening wicket. Raghuvanshi was stumped off the bowling of Harkirat Bajwa. But, Harnoor and Shaik Rasheed thumped the Australian bowling to all parts of the Providence stadium. Rasheed smashed 72 off 74 balls and he retired to give the other batsmen a chance.
Harnoor notched up his century and he retired immediately after getting to the milestone. Captain Yash Dhull also had a good outing with the bat, smashing 50 off 47 balls. This included seven boundaries. He was well supported by wicketkeeper Dinesh Bana as India registered a facile nine-wicket win.
Dhull’s fifty continued his good build-up to the ICC Under-19 World Cup. The captain had hit a fifty in the game against the West Indies. Nishant Sindhu was the top-scorer with 78 off 76 balls which included seven fours and three sixes. Aaradhya Yadav blazed away to 42 with five sixes. India’s total of 278/6 was too much for the West Indies team. Kaushal Tambe and Manav Parakh took three wickets apiece as India won by 130 runs.
The first match of the Indian team in the ICC Under-19 World Cup will be played on 15th January against South Africa at Providence, Guyana.
