In an anti-climax encounter, Sri Lanka Under 19 cricket team at the Asia Cup succumbed to India’s Under-19 team conceding a dominating run to lift their sixth title by outplaying Sri Lanka in all three departments to script a comprehensive 144 run win in the Sher-e Bangla Stadium in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Since the inception of the tournament in 1989, India won five straight U-19 Asia Cup titles before they failed to reach the finals last year in Malaysia. Afghanistan took home the trophy. But this time around, India remained the unbeaten team to lift their sixth trophy.
India’s top-order, just like the senior side, maintained their dominant impact, firing in unison in the finale. Openers Yashasvi Jaiswal (85) and Anuj Rawat (57) stitched a remarkable 121 runs stand for the first wicket in 25 overs. After Rawat was dismissed by left-arm spinner Dulith Wellalage in the 26th over. Jaiswal was joined by Devdutt Padikkal (31 runs) and the pair weaved a 59-run stand off 74 deliveries, before they departed successively. The momentum was then carried forward by skipper Simran Singh (65*) and Ayush Badoni (52*) adding 110 runs more to the board off 9.1 overs as India finished with an emphatic total of 340 runs for the loss of three wickets.
In reply to the massive total, Sri Lanka stuttered right from the beginning, losing their first wicket, skipper Nipun Dananjaya (12) to Mohit Jangra, before Harsh Tyagi picked up the wicket of Pasindu Sooriyabandara (31). Sri Lanka went down 66 for two in 15.3 overs. Tyagi then spun a web around Lankan batting order to scalp six wickets along with the assistance from teammate Siddharth Desai, who scalped two wickets as Sri Lanka were folded for a score of just 160 runs.
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