26 August 2013
India seem to have an inexhaustible wealth of talent at the moment in the cricket world. At a time when most other nations are struggling to find players for the future, India have been fielding age-group teams that are way ahead of others.
In the latest example of superiority, India thumped Pakistan by nine wickets to lift the under-23 Asian Cricket Council Emerging Teams Cup in Singapore on Sunday.
Opener Lokesh Rahul smashed an unbeaten 93 and Manprit Juneja made an unbeaten 51 as India made easy work of a small target set by their arch-rivals.
Sandeep Sharma and Baba Aparajith, both India U-19 World Cup winning stars, bowled well to dismiss Pakistan for 159. Aparajith took 3/28 and Sharma 2/20. Skipper Suryakumar Yadav, who had quiet tournament with the bat, took 2/20.
Pakistan began cautiously and lost both openers before the 10th over. Aparajith picked key wickets in the middle to make things worse as Pakistan were packed off in 33.4 overs.
The Pakistani bowlers managed a solitary wicket, that of out-of-touch opening batsman, Unmukt Chand (15).
Brief Scores India U-23 160 for 1 in 33.4 overs (Rahul 93 not out; Hasan 1/41) beat Pakistan U-23 159 all out in 47 overs (Waheed 41; Aparajith 3/28). India won by 9 wickets.
Published by: The Hindustan Times