Indian young guns registered an emphatic 211-run win over Japan to keep their hopes for the semi-final spot in the ACC Men's U19 Asia Cup 2024 alive on Monday. Captain Mohamed Amaan led by example with a sensational unbeaten century as India made a strong comeback from their defeat against Pakistan in the opening game.
Amaan top-scored with 122 runs off 118 balls while Ayush Mhatre and KP Karthikeya registered fifties each to help India post a big total of 339 for 6 while batting first at Sharjah Cricket Stadium. However, the Indian bowlers struggled to bowl out Japan who managed to play all 50 overs but scorched up only 128 runs for 8.
After a heartbreaking defeat in their opening game against Pakistan, India approached the Japan game with an aggressive mindset keeping one eye on the semi-final berth. In the other Group A game on Monday, Pakistan secured a big 69-run win over the UAE to secure the semi-final spot.
India now required to beat the UAE in their last group-stage game on Wednesday in Sharjah to secure the top-two finish in Group A. Both India and UAE have won two points so far and are in contention for the remaining semi-final spot.
However, the United Arab Emirates are ahead of India due to their superior net run rate after a huge 273-run win over Japan in their opening game. On the other hand, India fell 43 runs short while chasing a 282-run target against Pakistan in the first game in Dubai.
IND vs JAP U19 Full Scorecard
Japan U19 Playing XI: Aditya Phadke, Nihar Parmar, Koji Hardgrave Abe (c), Kazuma Kato-Stafford, Charles Hinze, Hugo Kelly, Timothy Moore, Kiefer Yamamoto-Lake, Daniel Panckhurst (wk), Aarav Tiwari, Max Yonekawa Lynn.
India U19 Playing XI: Ayush Mhatre, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Andre Siddarth C, Mohamed Amaan (c), Nikhil Kumar, KP Karthikeya, Harvansh Singh (wk), Hardik Raj, Samarth Nagaraj, Yudhajit Guha, Chetan Sharma.
