India U19 won their sixth ACC U-19 Asia Cup trophy after winning the 2018 ACC U-19 Asia Cup in Bangladesh. On Sunday, in the final of the tournament, Indian youths thrashed Sri Lankan youths by 144 runs and finished the tournament as unbeaten champion.
After their disappointing 2017 ACC U-19 Asia Cup journey, where India U19 had been eliminated from the group stages, the team dominated in this edition. In 2018 edition, India U19 was in Pool A along with Nepal U19, UAE U19 and the defending champions Afghanistan U19.
India U19 beat all of those teams convincingly – beat Nepal U19 by 171 runs, beat UAE U19 by 227 runs and beat Afghanistan U19 by 51 runs. In the semi-final, Indian youths met against the hosts Bangladesh U19. In that thrilling encounter, India just edged out the hosts by 2 runs after restricting the hosts to 170 runs against their 172 runs in the first innings.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka U19 also reached the final of 2018 ACC U-19 Asia Cup without losing a match. In the Pool B, Sri Lanka U19 beat the hosts Bangladesh U19 (by 6 wickets), Hong Kong U19 (by 10 wickets) and Pakistan U19 (by 23 runs). In the semi-final, Sri Lanka U19 beat the defending champions Afghanistan U19 by 31 runs and entered to the final for the fourth time in this tournament history. However, Sri Lanka U19 had never won this tournament so this time they were focusing to win this tournament for the first time but failed to survive against India U19.
On Sunday morning in the final of the tournament, India U19 captain Simran Singh decided to bat first after winning the toss. Every top-order batsmen provided good start as four out of five batsmen scored half-centuries in this innings. The openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and Anuj Rawat scored 85 (113 balls) and 57 (79 balls) respectively while the no.3 batsman Devdutt Padikkal scored 31 off 43 balls.
The next two batsmen, the skipper Simran Singh and Ayush Badoni both remained unbeaten at the end after a brilliant unbroken 110-run partnership for the fourth wicket. The skipper scored 65 off 37 balls while Badoni played a knock of 52 off 28 balls. India U19 finally put a total of 304/3 (50 overs) on the board.
Among the Sri Lanka U19 bowlers, only Kalana Perera (1/55), Kalhara Senarathne (1/45) and Dulith Wellalage (1/24) picked up one wicket each.
In reply, Sri Lanka U19 was bundled out for just 160 runs (38.4 overs) after the Indian left-arm spinner Harsh Tyagi bagged six wickets as he had the bowling figure of 10-0-38-6. Among the Sri Lankan batsmen, the opener Nishan Madushka (49), the no.3 batsman Pasindu Sooriyabandara (31) and the no.6 batsman Navod Paranavithana (48) reached the 20-run marks while the other opener and the skipper Nipun Dananjaya (12) was the only other man to reach the double-digit scores in that innings.
Apart from the six wicket-taker Tyagi, left-arm pacer Mohit Jangra (1/18) took one wicket and another left-arm spinner Siddharth Desai (2/37) claimed two wickets in that innings.
After India U19 won the match by 144 runs and secured the tournament victory, Harsh Tyagi won the Player of the Match award while the opener Yashasvi Jaiswal won the Player of the Tournament award for scoring most runs in this tournament – 214 runs in 3 innings with the average of 71.33.
