West Indies champs, India win Plate final
The Indian Under-15 team might have lost out in the race to the World Championship title but will return home contented after having won the Consolation Plate event by scoring a resounding eight wicket win over Sri Lanka in the final
Natarajan Sriram
17-Feb-2014
The Indian Under-15 team might have lost out in the race to the World
Championship title but will return home contented after having won the
Consolation Plate event by scoring a resounding eight wicket win over
Sri Lanka in the final. The Plate event was conducted for the losing
semifinalists, as part of the Costcutter World Under-15 Challenge in
England.
Champions in 1996, India had a comfortable outing on the Wellington
College ground. They first shot out Sri Lanka for just 82 runs in 30
overs. The wreckers-in-chief were Mrigen Talukdar with three for 22
and Irfan Pathan with four for 13. Tushar Saha chipped in with a two
wicket haul while giving away only 13 runs.
The Sri Lankan batsmen fared badly and were tottering at 39 for four
before Ferveez Maharoof (28) defied the bowling for some time. Gihan
de Silva (16) and Isuru Perera (12) were the only other Lankan batsmen
to reach double digits.
Chasing a meagre target, India were given a resounding start with the
in-form openers Abinav Kumar (41 not out) and Tirupati Ambati Rayudu
(32) putting on 72 runs. India then lost Vasu Devadas (0) at the same
score. But by then the contest was well and truly over. Abinav Kumar
in the company of Sushil Kumar (3 not out) guided India past the Sri
Lankan total.
Meanwhile West Indies, which sent India crashing out of the tournament
in the last match of the league phase by virtue of a better net run
rate, defeated Pakistan by two wickets in the final of the main event
at Lord's on Thursday.
Put in to bat, Pakistan put up 175 on the board thanks chiefly to a
fifth wicket partnership of 63 runs between Shahid Yousaf (46) and
Zulqarnain (48). K Santokie (2 for 34) did the early damage for the
West Indies and later H Punoo with figures of 2 for 32 in his ten
overs and X Marshall with 2 for 27 in nine overs kept the pressure on
Pakistan.
In reply, West Indies were off to a bad start losing opener Marshall
(0) with only three runs on the board. Then L Simmons (24) and A
Fudadin (55) put West Indies back on course with a third wicket stand
worth 63 runs. But even as Shahid Yousaf struck thrice, West Indies
were guided home by the ninth wicket pair of Santokie (13) and S
Liburd (2).