ACC U19 Asia Cup final Review: India completes decisive win

India secured their third ever ACC U19 Title in perhaps the most unusual of circumstances to say the least. The 34-run win was concluded when Yash Thakur ran out Praveen Jayawickrama off a no-ball. The umpire raised his hand as the curtains were brought down on what was certainly an impressive tournament to say the least. Abhishek Sharma won the toss and put the Lankans into bat first given the extreme humidity in the R Premadasa Stadoim in Colombo.

The Indian innings got off to a decent start as has been the narrative for the most part in this series. Prithvi Shaw and Himanshu Rana were beginning to impress quite a bit with some impressive batsmanship the pair of them have exhibited in the series. They would also go on to stitch an important partnership, something that would eventually go on to lay an important foundation as far as the Indians were concerned.

Once again, as has been the narrative thus far, the Indians have had decent starts and Prithvi Shaw was the one who was seemingly more eager to get off the blocks compared to his opening partner Himanshu Rana. Sure enough, this would prove to be the downfall yet again for Shaw who seemingly showed little or no restraint to say the least.

While Shaw was the first of Jayawickrama’s three scalps, the partnership stitched together by Rana and Shubman Gill was there for all to see. The duo began to play some impressive shots and countered the Sri Lankan bowling attack with some tremendous batting acumen. This was also solidified by the fact that Sri Lankan skipper Kamindu Mendis was perhaps not able to thrust some pressure on the India batsmen at the time.

The duo were able to score freely until it was the genius once more of spinner Jayawickrama who provided the breakthrough yet again. And this time around, it was the important wicket of Himanshu Rana for 71 after he had put on an impressive 136 runs for the second wicket. Shubman Gill did not last any longer as he too was dismissed for 70 before the Lakan bowlers began to run through the middle order.

While skipper Abhishek Sharma (29) and Salman Khan (26) did indeed turn in decent contributions, there was a flurry at the close of the innings from Kamlesh Nagarkoti who slammed 23 off just 14 deliveries to help the Indians reach a competitive total of 273 at the close of the innings.

The Lankans began their innings with some impressive batsmanship initially in spite of losing the wicket of Vishva Chaturanga for 13. Yash Thakur seemed to be finding his form with the ball as he was delivering the ball in the right areas, only for Reven Kelly to impress with some decent batting acumen. The wicket of Hasitha Boyagoda did very little to unnerve the impressive Kelly as he continued on his merry way.

Perhaps what was deemed to be the best partnership of the game for the Lankans was threatening to steal the game away from the Indians. While Kelly had smashed his way to an impressive 62, it was a strokeful delight from skipper Kamindu Mendis as he too reached his half century. However, when his team needed him most, Abhishek Sharma dismissed both batsmen in quick succession to get the Indians back into the match and also effectively triggered a landslide of wickets as far the Lankans were concerned.

The wickets tumbled as skipper Abhishek Sharma picked up four wickets while Rahul Chahar also complimented him with three wickets to his name as the match came to a close with the Indians concluding an impressive 34-run win.

Brief Scores:

India: 273/8 in 50 overs: (H Rana 71; N Ransika 3/50)

Sri Lanka: 239 all out (R Kelly 62; A Sharma 4/37)