A feisty spell of 4 wickets by Avesh Khan ensures a victory for the India U-19 team

Right-arm fast bowler Avesh Khan produced a fiery spell destroyed the Bangladesh U-19 team, enabling the India U-19 side to win the match by 82 runs. The opening game of the tri-series tournament played at the Jadavpur University Campus ground in Kolkata witnessed a brilliant spell from the Madhya Pradesh lad. The tournament also features the Afghanistan U-19 team and is an important one ahead of the U-19 World Cup which begins in January 2016 in Bangladesh.

Batting first the young Indians could only manage a score of 159 and were in need of a splendid bowling effort which came to courtesy Khan who reduced the visitors to 23/4 in 6.2 overs. Ably supported by the left-arm pacer Kanishk Seth (2/45), the duo bowled 12 overs in tandem before the off-spinner Mayank Dagar (1/7) and the leggie Zeeshan Ansari (2/1) wiped out the tail to hand earned the team a bonus point victory.

On the first ball Khan produced an off-cutter that the Bangladeshi opener Mohammad Saif Hasan chose to leave, it clipped his off-stump and the visitors started on a miserable note. Generating bounce and movement off the seam he had Pinak Ghosh caught behind. None of the visitors’ top-order batsman looked to hold and played some casual shots. His spell of 6-3-4-4 created problems for all top order batsmen.

Khan also batted well as his 25 not out from 29 balls (1×6, 2×4) in a 29-run partnership with Zeeshan Ansari (34 from 63 balls; 5×4) got the team past the 150-run mark. Earlier, Indian skipper Ricky Bhui’s decision to opt to bat seemed to have backfired as the Bangladesh seamer Mohammad Abdul Halim (2/24) claimed wickets in successive balls.

“We’ve been playing together for about three years now and this is for the first time, I’ve seen such an atrocious batting. I totally blame the batsmen they did not apply themselves and we lost the game,” were the views of Bangladeshi skipper Mehedi Hasan Miraz.

India now has five points, while Bangladesh are yet to open their account in the tournament also involving Afghanistan. India will take on Afghanistan on Saturday in their second match.

Result:

India U-19 158; 45.3 overs (Sunder Washington 34, Zeeshan Ansari 34; Mehidy Hasan Miraz 3/31, Mohammad Abdul Halim 2/24, Saleh Ahmed Shawon Gazi 2/26) beat Bangladesh U-19 76; 22 overs (Avesh Khan 4/4, Kanishk Seth 2/45, Zeeshan Ansari 2/1).