Yash Dhull smashed a sensational 108 while Shaik Rasheed scored 94 as India defeated Australia by 96 runs in the Super League semi-final on February 2.
The second Super League semi-final of the Under-19 World Cup 2021-22 turned out to be a one-sided affair as India’s total of 290/5 proved to be too strong for Australia. India will now meet England in the final on friday with an aim to clinch their fifth youth World Cup title.
The Indian bowlers were superb on the day as they have been throughout the competition. No team had managed to cross the 200-run mark in this tournament against the Indian bowling attack, and the semi-final was no different.
Chasing an extremely difficult target of 291, Australia were pegged back early with left-arm pacer Ravi Kumar nabbing in-form Teague Wyllie on his very first delivery. Corey Miller and Campbell Kellaway added a 68-run partnership and were looking like building a solid base, but Angkrish Raghuvanshi and Vicky Ostwal sent them back in consecutive overs to push the Aussies further in the corner.
Australia batters could not get any partnership going after that point as they lost wickets at regular intervals. Lachlan Shaw scored a fifty, but it wasn’t enough as they were bowled out for 194 in 41.5 overs. Ostwal was the pick of the bowlers for India with three for 42 while Nishant Sindhu and Ravi Kumar claimed two wickets each.
Earlier, it was Yash Dhull, Shaik Rasheed and some late hitting that batted the Aussies out of the contest. Winning the toss, India chose to bat first. However, they didn’t get the desired start as the in-form opening pair failed to tackle the new ball.
Angkrish was dismissed for six off 30 by a peach of a delivery from William Salzmann, while Harnoor Singh’s attempted pull found the wicketkeeper on 16 off 28. India were 37/2 in 12.3 overs.
Rasheed and Dhull slowly started rebuilding the innings. The duo brought India’s score to 86/2 at the halfway stage of the innings. Rasheed was dropped on 25, while Dhull was given an easy run-out reprieve later by the Aussie fielders.
The pair made the most of the chances and brought up 100 runs partnership in 33rd over of the innings. Dhull registered his second fifty of the tournament in 64 balls, while Rasheed joined the act in 79 balls.
After rebuilding the innings, it was time to up the ante and Dhull-Rasheed did just that. The duo brought out their wide range of shots and punished even the good deliveries as India reached 237/2 in 45 overs. Their second hundred partnership came off just 72 balls.
A Captain's knock 🙌
— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) February 2, 2022
Yash Dhull scored a fine 💯 to lead #BoysInBlue out of the woods and to a total of 2⃣9⃣0⃣ 💪💙#OneFamily #INDvAUS #U19CWC @BCCI pic.twitter.com/GRaDZwr6cx
Dhull registered a sublime hundred and became only the third Indian captain to score a century at the U19 World Cup. On 108 off 108, he was run out at the non-striker’s end, perhaps the only way Australia could’ve gotten him out. On the very next ball, Rasheed cut an outside off delivery straight to the point, where Sinfield took a good low catch. Rasheed unfortunately missed out on a deserving hundred by six runs.
Salzmann bowled a couple of outstanding death overs but runs kept leaking from the other end as India smashed 48 runs in the last three overs. Dinesh Bana (20 off 4) and Nishant Sindhu took 27 runs of the last over to propel India to a very strong total of 290.
Brief scores
India U19s: 290/5 in 50 overs (Dhull 108, Rasheed 94; Nisbet 2/41, Salzmann 2/57)
Australia U19s: 194 in 41.5 overs (Shaw 51, Miller 38; Ostwal 3/42, Sindhu 2/25)
