Townsville: India Under-19 team defeated New Zealand Under-19s by nine runs in the semifinals to reach the finals of the ICC Under-19 World Cup, at the Tony Ireland Stadium, Townsville. The stars of the show for India were Prashant Chopra who scored 52 runs and Harmeet Singh who picked two crucial wickets.
Earlier in the day, New Zealand won the toss and elected to field. The Indian team responded well and had an important opening wicket partnership of 51 runsbetween Chopra and captain Unmukt Chand (31).
After the fall of Chand’s wicket, in-form batsman Baba Aparajith came in to bat and played an important knock of 44 runs. Indian team was in good position with 132 runs on the board losing only one wicket.
But a middle-order collapse halted India’s plan and they could manage only 209 runs.
Chasing a below-par score, New Zealand got off to a bad start as they lost their first wicket on the score of 29 runs. The Indian team kept taking wickets and got four Kiwi batsmen with the total reading 63.
Robert O’Donnell (29) and Cam Fletcher (53) than were involved in a good partnership of 56 runs to take their team close to the Indian total.
The Kiwis kept losing wickets and that affected their run-rate, they needed 18 runs off the last over, but fell short by nine runs.
Brief Score:
India Under-19 209/9 (Chopra 52, Horne 3-28)
New Zealand Under-19 200/9 (Fletcher 53, Harmeet 2-30)
By Indian Sports News Network