India Under-19s continued their winning streak with a 20-run win against England Under-19s in the Tri-Nation tournament in Sri Lanka.
Himanshu Rana and Rishabh Pant helped the team to a respectable 261 runs, while the bowlers dismissed the opposition with three balls to spare.
Earlier, after electing to bat, Pant and Rana (50) got the team off to a good start with a 113-run opening stand.
Rana’s run-out after completing a half-century brought Ricky Bhui to the crease, who made 42 off 55 balls to keep the momentum going. At the other end, Pant cracked 71 off 68 balls with two sixes and nine boundaries to put the team in an strong position. However, the middle-order and the lower-order caved in against the England attack.
India were bowled out on the last ball of their quota of overs after setting the opposition a 262-run target.
Mayank Dagar then claimed Ryan Davies to give India their first breakthrough with 52 runs on the board. However, Dan Lawrence (55), George Bartlett (70) and Max Holden (45) lower down the order, kept England in the fray even as the India bowlers continued to strike at regular intervals.
Left-arm spinner Dagar claimed three wickets while pacer Avesh Khan took the last two wickets in the final over to bowl India to victory. MS Washington Sundar picked two wickets while Zeeshan Ansari and R Batham chipped in with a wicket each.
Brief scores: Ind U19 261/10 in 50 overs (R Pant 71, H Rana 50, M Crane 3/51) beat Eng U19 241/10 in 49.3 overs (G Bartlett 70, D Lawrence 55, M Dagar 3/27, A Khan 2/36) by 20 runs.
