Harnoor Singh (65), Raj Bawa (43*) and Kaushal Tambe (35*) starred with the bat as India defeated Afghanistan by four wickets in the ongoing ACC U19 Asia Cup here at the ICC Academy Ground No 2 on Monday.
Chasing 260, India got off to an excellent start as openers Harnoor Singh and Angkrish Raghuvanshi put on 104 runs for the first wicket and this stand saw Singh going past his 50-run mark. However, Afghanistan stormed right back into the contest with three wickets in quick succession. Noor Ahmad dismissed Singh (65) and Raghuvanshi (35) while Bilal Sami got the better of Shaik Rasheed (6). Skipper Yash Dhull and Nishant Sindhu then got together at the crease and the duo put on 46 runs for the fourth wicket. But as soon as India started to gain an upper hand, Nishant Sindhu (19) was dismissed by Khalel Ahmad, still, 98 runs away from victory.
Skipper Yash Dhull (26) was soon stumped off the bowling of Noor Ahmad and a few minutes later, Aaradhya Yadav (112) was scalped by Ahmad and India found itself in a spot of bother at 197/6, still, 63 runs away from victory. Raj Bawa (43*) and Kaushal Tambe (35*) then played useful knocks to guide India to a victory over Afghanistan.
Earlier, Ijaz Ahmad Ahmadzai played an unbeaten knock of 86 as Afghanistan posted 259/4 in the allotted fifty overs. Skipper Suliman Safi also got among the runs as he played a knock of 73 off just 86 balls with the help of seven boundaries and one six.
Brief Scores: Afghanistan 259/4 (Ijaz Ahmad Ahmadzai 86, Suliman Safi 73; Kaushal Tambe 1-25); India 262/6(Harnoor Singh 65, Raj Bawa 43*; Noor Ahmad 4-43).