India U19 off to a winning start in the Youth ODI series in Sri Lanka

The India U19 team is in Sri Lanka and after the two-match Youth Test series that India won 2-0 the two teams are now facing off in the Youth ODIs which is a five-match series. The first match was played today at the P Sara Oval in Colombo and the Indian youngsters led by Aryan Juyal trounced the home team by 6 wickets with more than 11 overs to spare.

Sri Lankan captain Nipul Dananjaya won the toss and decided to bat first. The Indian new-ball bowlers Mohit Jangra and Yatin Mangwani relished the opportunity and dealt early blows. The fact that the Lankan batsmen couldn’t score runs further kept them under pressure. Jangra sent back wicketkeeper-batsman KNM Fernando first and then his opening partner Paranavithana. Mangwani from the other end struck twice as well and scalped MNK Fernando and P Sooriyabandara who were both dismissed for single-digit scores.

Nipul who walked in at 3 was watching at the other end as he lost partners one after the other. He tried his best to stabilize the ship but the fall of wickets just didn’t stop. He was dismissed for 33 from 45 balls which was one of the two 20+ totals in the innings.

Among other Indian bowlers, Ajay Dev Goud picked three wickets while Ayush Badoni bagged a couple Siddharth Desai also got a wicket and the Indian juniors bowled out their Lankan counterparts for just 143 in 38.4 overs.

Rawat leads the way with a fifty

India in response didn’t have a great start as Pawan Shah was dismissed for 12 by Manasinghe in the 5th over Yashasvi Jaiswal couldn’t score more than 15 runs and they were two down for 54. But with no pressure of the scoring rate and the task easing out Anuj Rawat hung in there and scored a half century. He was a part of all the three partnerships in the top order the best of which was 39 runs he added with skipper Juyal who was dismissed for 20.

Rawat also got out for 50 in the 31st over when the team score was 113 but the task was just too easy after that and Sameer Choudhary along with Atharwa Taide got the team over the line on the first ball of the 38th over. Choudhary was unbeaten on 31 and hit three boundaries and a six in his knock.

Among the Sri Lanka U19 bowlers, Lakshitha Manasinghe had the best figures of 2/32 while Avishka Lakshan returned with 1/40 and the only other bowler to get a wicket was Sandun Mendis – 1/15.

Brief Score:

Sri Lanka U19s: 143 all out in 38.4 overs (N Malinga 38; AD Goud 3/18)

India U19s: 144 for 4 in 37.1 overs (A Rawat 50; L Manasinghe 2/32)

India won by 6 wickets; lead the series 1-0

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