Siddharth Desai sneered six wickets with his left-arm spin after openers Anuj Rawat and Devdutt Padikkal smashed sparkling centuries as India U-19 brushed aside minnows UAE by 227 runs in their second match of the U-19 Asia Cup at Savar, Bangladesh on Sunday.
Batting first, India put on 354 for six riding on a 205-run opening stand between Rawat and Devdutt. While Devdutt smashed a 121 off 105 balls, wicket-keeper batsman Rawat scored 102 off 115 balls to give India an ideal start. Rawat slammed 5 sixes in his innings.
After Rawat’s dismissal in the 36th over, captain Pawan Shah joined Devdutt as India began to accelerate. Devdutt was finally out in the 42nd over in his quest to get quick runs. He hit 2 sixes and 15 fours in his 115-ball stay in the middle.
The Indian middle order led by captain Shah carried on the good work and towards the end, it was 19-ball 42-run cameo by Sameer Choudhary that pushed India over the 350-run mark. He hit four sixes, scoring at a strike rate of 221.5.
In reply, UAE batsmen were at sixes and sevens in front of the Indian bowlers. They lost their first wicket as early as the fourth bowl of their innings with medium pacer Rajesh Mohanty getting through the defenses of RS Panoly for nought. Mohanty’s new-ball partner Sabir Khan did not take long to get into wickets column. He removed Ansh Tandon for 8.
Thereafter it was the turn of the Indian spinners to rattle to UAE batsmen. Left-arm spinner Desai picked up six wickets for 24 runs in his 8.4 over spell to bowl them out for 127 in 33.5 overs. For UAE, Ali Mirza top-scored with 41.
This was India’s second win in the tournament. They had beaten Nepal by 171 runs in their tournament opener.