Bloemfontein: Skipper Uday Saharan and Sachin Dhas' scintillating centuries and Saumy Pandey's four-wicket haul guided India to book a berth in the ICC Men's U-19 Cricket World Cup 2024 semi-final as they outplayed minnows Nepal U19 by 132 runs at Manguang Oval here on Friday.
Notably, this was India's fifth straight win of the tournament so far. India first posted 297 for 5 on the board and the restricted the opposition to 165 for 9 to emerge triumphant.
Nepal were watchful at the start and went about their business quietly. However, led by their wily vice-captain, Saumy Pandey, India found a way in. Pacer Raj Limbani, Arshin Kulkarni, and Murugan Abhishek also contributed to the wickets column, as Nepal slipped from 48 for 0 to 77 for 7. With this four-wicket haul, Pandey (12 wickets) became the second-highest wicket-taker of the tournament only behind South Africa's impressive pacer Kwena Maphaka (18 wickets).
Nepal never looked like they were going for a chase. They were just trying to find a way to stay on the crease as much as possible but failed to do it. Skipper Dev Khanal (33) showed some grit and emerged as the top scorer. Number 10 and 11 batters Aakash Chand and Durgesh Gupta only delayed the inevitable as they took the match to the last over. Chand and Gupta stitched an unbroken 45-run stand off 69 balls for the last wicket.
Earlier, opting to bat, India got off to a brisk start with Adarsh Singh scoring 21 off 18 balls before falling prey to Gulsan Jha's short-ball tactic, giving a regulation catch down the leg side. The Indians were rattled further with the dismissals of Arshin Kulkarni (18) and Priyanshu Moliya (19) in a space of three balls.
However, the momentum shifted dramatically with Sachin Dhas and skipper Uday Saharan's fluent centuries, lifting India-U19 from a tricky 62 for 3 to a formidable 297 for 5.
Dhas punished the listless Nepal attack and scored 116 off 101 balls with 11 boundaries and three sixes. Saharan, on the other hand, played a captain's knock, scoring 100 off 107 balls. He hammered nine boundaries and stitched India's highest partnership of the tournament of 215 runs off a mere 202 balls - with Sachin Dhas - for the fourth wicket - to power the side to a challenging total.
With hundreds from Dhas and Saharan, Colts in Blue now have five centuries in the ongoing tournament. Underlining their dominance with the bat, India have so far scored two 300-plus totals, while on two occasions have scored over 290 from five matches of this global showpiece.
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