The defending champions tore through Australia after an underwhelming batting display, while Scotland and Zimbabwe picked up comfortable Plate League wins
Eleven teams were granted automatic qualification for this year's tournament based on their predecessors' performances in New Zealand two years ago, and groups and seedings for the pool stages were determined solely on those rankings. As such, defending champions India found themselves pitching up against New Zealand and Sri Lanka – eighth and ninth respectively in 2018 – and getting a true David v Goliath clash with World Cup newcomers Japan in the middle.
While there is naturally not much overlap in terms of the players involved – Sri Lanka skipper Nipun Dananjaya was the only man in the group returning from the 2018 edition – the team's respective efforts have been not at all dissimilar, and India have would likely still progressed to Super League action had they played all three first-round fixtures with their eyes closed.
Over the tournament's opening weekend, Sri Lanka offered the biggest fight of the lot, but that only translates to bowling fairly loosely, conceding a shade under 300, and falling away for 207 as India shared the wickets around and had five of six batsmen calmly reaching the 40s.
Neither New Zealand nor Japan managed a single wicket – Yashasvi Jaiswal and Kumar Kushagra chased 42 against the latter in a ball under five overs for the second-fastest chase in Under-19 World Cup history; Jaiswal and Divyaansh Saxena each trotted leisurely through 23 overs at five an over before rain cut their partnership and innings short against the Blackcaps.
Perhaps that dearth of match action is why Jaiswal was the only cog in the top order to actually find some sort of groove against a capable Australian attack. On a wicket at the JB Marks Oval, India did not look to rush out of the gate – the opening powerplay mustered just 35 runs – and Australia's unerring control soon gave them the upper hand via a string of questionable shots. India's top order strolled nonchalantly into its first challenge of the competition, and came out second-best almost as quickly.
After reaching his third half-century of the tournament, Jaiswal's departure was perhaps the most egregious. The 18-year-old left-hander, who scored two centuries and a double inside eight days on List A duty for Mumbai late last year, had already watched three men fall meekly and seen Dhruv Chand Jurel at the other end reach eight from 27 deliveries, he cautious temperament that had seen him through to that 24th over then suddenly ran dry against the leg-spin of Tanveer Sangha.
Yashasvi Jaiswal earned a £200,000 IPL deal with Rajasthan Royals before turning 18 in December
Without taking so much as one ball to evaluate Sangha's offering, Jaiswal sensed a chance to bring up his fifty by breaking character and slog-sweeping a six over cow corner. Three balls later, thinking a leg-stump line from Sangha was an invitation to pivot around and lash it to the square rope, again off he went.
But Sangha has spent this tournament a far cannier operator than Jaiswal gave him credit for, and a little dip as the ball came off the pitch saw the batsman spin back round to see his bails on the floor and his team's innings perched uncomfortably on a cliff. The scalp drew Sangha level with Hamidullah Qadri and Shafiqullah Ghafari at the top of the wicket table, and India soon found themselves at 144 for 6 with 12 overs to play.
A TV graphic earlier in the day proclaimed India's XI was one of seven allrounders and only one specialist batsman, and it certainly seemed that way this morning. It should go without saying that this is a more talented team than their batting implied – just ask their IPL contracts – and India should not have to rely on players in the side for their spin bowling to post any sort of competitive score.
In their first batting displays of the tournament, run-a-ball knocks from Atharva Ankolekar (55 not out) and Ravi Bishnoi (30) proved ultimately vital. While the final 74-run margin of victory suggested a straightforward result, without Ankolekar and Bishnoi's late flurries with the bat then the resolute grit of Sam Fanning (75 in three hours at the crease) may well have been enough to carry Australia home.
Kartik Tyagi is quite accustomed to causing utter chaos. In India's first official warm-up fixture for this World Cup, the young quick from Uttar Pradesh had a hat-trick against Afghanistan before the first over of their chase was out, and the side – who it must be said have been a little more resolute with the bat in the tournament proper – promptly surrendered for 44 inside 20 overs and lost by 211 runs.
Today, Australia will likely have been rather pleased to only be chasing down 234 – they had just about managed 19 more than that against England to secure their place at this stage – but any complacent hopes of an easy ride into the semi-finals were swiftly punished with an opening over of farce at the hands of Tyagi and his team.
Jake Fraser-McGurk began his tournament in an unforgettable fashion, coolly whipping 84 against the West Indies to outscore his 10 teammates combined over the opening weekend. The way it ended will make just as much of an impression – the prodigious 17-year-old watched partner Sam Fanning push Tyagi's first ball tenderly down the track towards mid-off before eventually chasing after it and presenting India a gift of a farcical run-out to commence proceedings.
Before today, there had been 2,352 innings by openers in Under-19 World Cup cricket. Seven had ended without the batsman facing a ball. Just one of those was in a knockout match, where a young Ravi Bopara removed West Indies non-striker Tishan Maraj during Tim Bresnan's opening over in the 2004 semi-final. When we picked Fraser-McGurk in our best XI of the group stages and suggested he may be a yet more fearsome prospect when out to make amends for an early dismissal against England, joining this club was certainly not what we had in mind.
Tyagi added two more himself before the over was out and another in the one that followed. Captain Mackenzie Harvey lasted all of three balls before Adrian Holdstock raised his finger to grant an appeal for leg-before that had pitched comfortably outside the line of the left-hander's leg stump; Lachlan Hearne came away with a duck of the golden variety after missing a peach of a yorker; the big-hitting Ollie Davies found Jaiswal at slip while on a bizarre fishing trip outside off to bring the score to 17 for 4.
Four swift wickets left Sam Fanning shouldering Australia's fading hopes of a fourth title
From the opposite end, Sushant Mishra appeared determined not to be outdone on the anarchy stakes. The Ranchi product has some pace and more Youth ODI wickets than any other non-Bangladesh bowler in the two years between this World Cup and the last. He also has a propensity to let off the odd beamer (his first ball today), roll over his ankle mid-delivery and send the ball deep into the slips (his second over) and even almost have a batsman dismissed for obstructing the field off his bowling (over four). Comedy cricket is, at least with this India team, in good hands.
But it was Tyagi and Akash Singh who had the last laugh. Tyagi had Patrick Rowe edging behind with the second delivery of his second spell, and Singh made exceptionally light work of the Australian tail once Ravi Bishnoi had snapped a mammoth partnership between Sam Fanning and Liam Scott – who had opened in Fanning's place against the West Indies to begin the tournament, but entered today's game mid-way through as the level's first ever concussion substitute.
There was to be no repeat performance of freakish death over batting miracles here. From a 40-over score of 149 for 5, Australia added just 10 more runs in 3.3 overs before India's semi-final spot was assured. Scott naturally conjured visions of the original Australian supersub Marnus Labuschagne, but the tragicomic start to Australia's chase had suffocated all prospects before anything could even begin.
As this column discussed on Saturday, the struggles of Scotland's top order was one of the many disappointments to come out of Group C, but Angus Guy's young side put all that behind them today for their Plate League quarter-final with a slick display from top to bottom against an experienced United Arab Emirates XI.
Uzzair Shah and Danny Cairns were Guy's top performers in a refreshed side, with Shah named player of the match for helping Scotland to their first double-figure opening partnership since their warm-up games and totting up 71 by the game's end.
Shah's promotion from No.5 paid enormous dividends – his partnership up top with Ben Davidson (36) was worth 90, and Tom Mackintosh (57) joined him for another 86 for the second wicket as the team strolled to their first win in Youth ODI action since 2016.
It had previously taken a counter-attacking from Osama Hassan to help the UAE up to a respectable total of 249 all out, with Cairns undoing the steady work of opening batsman Vriitya Aravind in the middle of the innings by twice taking two wickets in an over.
The Clydesdale off-spinner ended with 4-32 from his seven overs – the country's second-best figures in tournament history – and could then sit back and watch Jasper Davidson and captain Guy tie off a seven-wicket win with 5.4 overs in hand and make it a clean sweep of personal bests for Scotland's batsmen after a tough run in the group campaign.
Tom Mackintosh was one of five Scotland batsmen to hit a career-best Youth ODI score
This year's World Cup is yet to offer all that much for the five teams who had to win their way in through the qualification procedures. Scotland's win over the UAE was only the second such result between the teams, and the previous win had come when the UAE themselves toppled Canada in the only Associate v Associate match-up of the group stage.
However, the presence of Full Member sides England, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in the second-string Plate League contest should hopefully give them a little more of a shot at an upset to remember, even if Canada could not quite deliver on their early promise in Potchefstroom this morning.
After being asked to field by stand-in Zimbabwe captain Wesley Madhevere, the Americas' representative at the tournament had their opponents limping along at 54 for 5. Though it was spinners that had led the charge to get them past the USA and Bermuda into this competition, today it was seamers doing the damage early.
Madhevere himself fell for six in the third over and fellow three-tournament veteran Milton Shumba scored just one more, before Toronto-born seaming allrounder Akhil Kumar added three more wickets to the four he collected against South Africa last week to have Zimbabwe firmly stuck in a rut 15 overs in.
But such heights would not be enjoyed for long, as Canada's bowlers conceded their third individual century of the tournament – and the fourth of the World Cup overall – to 16-year-old No.7 batsman Emmanuel Bawa, who remained unbeaten as Zimbabwe plundered 78 from the final seven overs.
Bawa's was an innings of two halves, stabilising the team in support of elder statesman and half-centurion Taurayi Tugwete before turning aggressor himself. After getting off the mark with a boundary, it was another 59 balls before he struck another, yet his run from a 63-ball 50 to reaching three figures with the penultimate ball of the innings took only took 33.
Tail-ender Gareth Chirawu added an unbeaten 45-ball 54 of his own before taking the key wickets of Kumar and Udaybir Walia, and the resulting total of 271 for 7 proved well beyond the reach of a young Canada side fielding two debutants, who fell away to a 95-run defeat.
Images: ICC / Getty
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