U19 Asia Cup: Jaiswal's 92, Desai's four-fer gives India 51-run win over Afghanistan

India U-19 registered a hat-trick of wins in the Youth Asia Cup to finish on top of Group A, beating Afghanistan by 51 runs in their final league match in Bangladesh.

The Indian batting line-up was tested for the first time in the tournament but left-arm spinners Siddharth Desai and Harsh Tyagi ensured there were no hiccups as India Colts registered an easy 51-run win against Afghanistan in the U-19 Asia Cup in Bangladesh.

India finished on top of Group A with three wins in as many matches.

India, placed on the easier group of the two, were in a lot of trouble at 14 for 3 after opting to bat first with in-form opener Anuj Rawat(0), captain Pawan Shah (12) and N Wadhera(0) all back in the hut. Yashasvi Jaiswal, playing his first match of the tournament, started to rebuild the innings with wicket-keeper with Simran Singh. The duo put on 62 runs to for the fourth wicket to pull India out of the hole before Simran was dismissed for 17.

Jaiswal carried on the good work with Ayush Badoni joining him in the middle. Both Jaiswal and Badoni chose to fight fire with fire and their counter-attacking strategy did wonders for India. India scored 80 runs in 15.3 overs despite losing their first four wickets cheaply.

Jaiswal, who hit 13 fours and one six, fell for 92, just 8 short of his maiden century. Jaiswal’s wicket did not have any bearings on Badoni’s approach. He continued to be positive and struck a fluent 65 off 66 balls.

India, however, crumbled after Badoni’s dismissal, losing their last four wickets for 19 runs. For Afghanistan, medium pacer Azmatullah Omarzai and leggie Qais Ahmed picked up three wickets apiece.

In reply, Riaz Hossain and captain Rahmanullah Gurbaz gave a perfect start to Afghanistan's chase, forcing India to turn to spin very early. That turned out to be a blessing in disguise as left-arm spinner Desai immediately removed Gurbaz for 37.

3 overs later, Desai struck from the other end and exposed the Afghanistan middle order, which appeared clueless in front of the Indian spinners. Desai and Tyagi shared 7 wickets among them, bowling Afghanistan out for 170 in 45.2 overs.

Desai was once again the best Indian bowler on display, returning with figures of 4 for 37. Desai has so far taken 13 wickets in three matches of the Asia Cup.