Wednesday Dec 25, 2024
Wednesday Dec 25, 2024
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| Lakvin Abeysinghe top scores for Sri Lanka with a defiant 69 |
Eight-time champion India will meet defending champions Bangladesh in the final of the Asia Cricket Council (ACC) Under 19 Asia Cup final at Dubai on Sunday.
In the semi-finals played yesterday, India came up with a strong all-round performance to blow away Sri Lanka by seven wickets at Sharjah while Bangladesh did the same with Pakistan at Dubai winning by the same margin.
Sri Lanka who finished unbeaten in their lead-up to the semi-final heading Group B were completely undone by a strong Indian outfit who dismissed them for 173 and knocked the runs off inside 22 overs to win with 170 balls to spare.
Sri Lanka’s batting never got going after they won the toss and decided to bat first losing their first three wickets for just eight runs.
A fourth wicket stand of 93 between Sharujan Shanmuganathan (42 off 78 balls, 2 fours) and Lakvin Abeysinghe (69 off 110 balls, 3 fours, 2 sixes) enabled Sri Lanka to recover to 101. But once the stand was broken Sri Lanka folded up tamely with the last four wickets tumbling for 12 runs.
India started off in aggressive fashion posting the fastest power play score of the tournament with 109-1 in the first 10 overs. They were never in trouble against the Lankan bowling with openers Ayush Matre (34 off 28 balls, 7 fours) and Player of the Match Vaibhav Suryavanshi (67 off 36 balls, 6 fours, 5 sixes) posting 91, from which point India simply cruised to victory.
In the second semi-final at Dubai, a brilliant spell of fast medium bowling by Player of the Match Iqbal Hossain (4/24) saw Bangladesh bowl out Pakistan for 116. Aided by an undefeated 61 off 42 balls (7 fours, 3 sixes) from skipper Azizul Hakim, Bangladesh overhauled Pakistan’s total in the 23rd over.
SEMI-FINAL RESULTS
