India's Road to a Fourth Straight ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup Semi-final
India are the most successful team in the ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup history having won four titles so far.
India have qualified for the semi-finals of the ongoing ICC U-19 World Cup 2022 with their fourth win on the trot. The squad, led by Yash Dhull, edged past defending champions Bangladesh in a tricky quarter-final clash on Saturday in Antigua. This is the fourth time in a row that India, a four-time champions, will be appearing in the last-four stage of the competition.
It’s not been a smooth ride for the former champions though as there was a time during the tournament when they struggled to put together a fit eleven when several members of their squad got infected with covid including both captain Dhull and his deputy Shaik Rasheed.
Here’s a brief look at their journey so far:-
>Match 1: Defeated South Africa by 45 Runs
In their tournament opener, India faced a tough challenge from South Africa at the Providence Stadium in Guyana on January 15. They were put in to bat first and Aphiwe Mnyanda landed early blows when he got rid of both their openers inside the first six overs. Dhull and Rasheed combined to put their innings on track with a 71-run partnership for the third wicket. Dhull was the top-scorer of the innings, hitting 82 off 100 while Kaushal Tambe made 35 and Rasheed struck 31 in a total of 232-all out.
Right-arm pacer Rajvardhan Hangargekar struck with the fourth delivery of the South Africa innings before Dewald Brevis led the recovery, hitting a half-century. Then Vicky Ostwal (5/28) and Raj Bawa (4/47) combined to trigger a collapse as South Africa were bowled out for 187 in 45.4 overs.
>Covid Strikes Indian Camp
Five members of the India U-19 squad were unavailable for their second group clash, against Ireland on January 19 after a covid outbreak. Captain Dhull, vice-captain Rasheed, Aaradhya Yadav, Manav Parakh and Siddarth Yadav were part of that group and missed both the Ireland and Uganda fixtures. BCCI had to fly in reinforcements.
#Courtesy: News18
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