India U-19 thrash England U-19 by 230 runs

Mumbai: Prithvi Shaw and Shubman Gill slammed centuries as India U-19 crushed their counterparts from England by 230 runs in the fourth One-dayer to take an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match series, here on Monday.

After posting a mammoth 382 for nine, following centuries by Gill and Shaw, pacers Kamlesh Nagarkoti (4-31), Vivekanand Tiwari (3-20) and Shivam Mavi (2-18) shared nine wickets between them to outplay England U-19 in all departments.

Mavi had Harry Brook (0) trapped in front of the wicket in the second over and Nagarkoti removed George Bartlett, also for nought, to leave the visitors struggling at eight for two. Mavi stuck again as he cleaned up Tom Banton (6) with England teetering at 16 for three.

Delray Rawlins (9) stuck two consecutive boundaries in the beginning, but was caught at mid-off by Mayank Rawat off Nagarkoti.

Leggie Rahul Chahar struck in his first over as he cleaned up Max Holden (17). In his second spell, Nagarkoti removed Ollie Pope (59), the top scorer for England colts, who edged to keeper Desai, while Will Jacks (44) was the eighth batsman to be dismissed.

Put into bat, India U-19 posted their second highest total- the best being 425 for three against Scotland U-19 in Dhaka in 2004.

Gill, who opened the innings with skipper Himanshu Rana, added 83 runs for the first wicket.

After Rana (33) departed, Shaw joined Gill and the two smashed the English spinners and pacers. It was an absolute carnage from them as they put up a 231-run stand in just 164 balls for the second wicket.

Gill, who has scored an unbeaten 138 in the last game, continued his splendid form. He played a variety of shots like straight drivers, cover drives, sweeps, paddle sweeps, pull shots in his knock of 160 off 120 balls, which was laced with 23 boundaries and a lone six. He completed his 150 in 115 balls. This was also the third highest individual score by an Indian U-19 batsman. 

Shaw, who had failed to score big so far, finally played one. He struck 12 fours and two towering sixes, both over the bowlers head, during his knock of 105 off 89 balls. The Mumbai player completed his century with a single towards mid-wicket.