da stake casino： India humilated England who were dismissed for just 58 in the semi-final of the Under-19 World Cup
Andrew McGlashan in Colombo15-Feb-2006
Scorecard
Cheteshwar Pujara’s brilliant unbeaten 129 put England to the sword © ICC
Before this match Venkatesh Prasad, the Indian coach, told his team to beruthless. They obviously listened. Their performance at the PremadasaStadium, in the first Super League semi-final, was as close to perfectionas is possible. The batsmen, led by Cheteshwar Pujara’s unbeaten 129, putthe England attack to the sword, then the new-ball attack of VijaykumarYomahesh and Abu Nechim Ahmed tore the batting to shreds as they crashedto a humiliating 58 – comfortably their lowest score at this level.England’s bowlers have kept them in the tournament with a series ofimpressive performances, but tonight they came up against a high-class line-upwho showed no mercy. Pujara and Gaurav Dhiman made an effort to attack thespinners when they were thrown into action early and, apart from a briefperiod when they claimed two quick wickets, the onslaught was relentless.But the pasting handed out to the bowlers was nothing to the demolitionjob performed to seal the win. Yomahesh and Ahmed bowled with genuine venomand extracted disconcerting bounce from a good length. They made the mostof a horrid 20-minute period that the England openers had to face beforethe interval – a rule that clearly penalises a side that bowls their oversquickly – and knocked the top off the order in five fiery overs.Varun Chopra and Mark Stoneman were both cleaned-up by beauties fromAhmed, who nipped the ball off the seam at pace, although the batsmen werecaught on the crease, while Mark Nelson fenced limply to gully offYomahesh. And tea did nothing to slow them down; when Moeen Ali flashed toslip, he cut a forlorn figure trudging back to the pavilion. A mauling likethis will take some time to get over, especially as it has come in asemi-final.Venkatesh Prasad, India’s coach, was thrilled with the stunning display:”It was an unbelievable result, we never thought the game was going to beso one-sided as we had great respect for England. We didn’t want to falterin any aspect of the game, whether it was batting in partnerships, bowlingor the fielding, which I thought was outstanding. We didn’t want to leavethe job for others and the boys stuck to their word today.”Ali was blunt in his assessment of the team’s collapse: “We lacked pridetoday. We weren’t focused enough. It didn’t look as though we wanted to beout there. I think after the Bangladesh result I think we almost expectedto do well. We didn’t expect India to be so good.”The day started to go wrong for Ali as soon as he lost the toss which meant that, whenDhiman laid into the new ball, he was forced to bring in Nick James, hisSupersub, into action as early as the ninth over. But the control that hadbeen evident throughout the tournament disserted most of the attack – withthe exception of Graeme White.Pujara made the most of being dropped at slip by Chopra when he had madejust a single and this knock continued his fine World Cup form: beforetoday he was averaging 110 from four matches. His century arrived in 135balls, then he found a second wind and tore into the final over of theinnings from Huw Waters which cost a mammoth 25 runs.Rohit Sharma was the aggressor in a second-wicket stand of 112, which putIndia on course for their imposing total and a late flurry form MaynakTehlan and Ravindra Jadeja punished England in the closing overs.Dhiman had launched the innings with 18 off the fourth over, and althoughhis aggression eventually got the better of him, India had a solidplatform. England threatened to hold then to around 270 at one stage butit wouldn’t have matter a jot. However, they will have felt chasing 293was not impossible; almost before they could blink it was 22 for 6 andreaching 50 was a milestone.India deserve immense credit for their performance. After starting poorly in thewarm-up matches they have found their feet and form when it matters. Theyhave star quality in the batting and bowling. Whether it is Australia orPakistan in the final they will give either a tough test – and thatis what a World Cup final is all about.How they were outEnglandVarun Chopra b Ahmed 2 (3 for 1)
Mark Stoneman b Ahmed 2 (12 for 2)
Mark Nelson c Das b Yomahesh 6 (12 for 3)
Rory Hamilton-Brown c Shah b Ahmed 1 (13 for 4)
Moeen Ali c Ravikant Shukla b Ahmed 4 (17 for 5)
Ben Wright c Das b Yomahesh 2 (22 for 6)
Nick James c Ravikant Shukla b Chawla 5 (35 for 7)
Steve Mullaney c Tehlan b Dhiman 7 (38 for 8)
John Simpson lbw Bipinbhai 1 (49 for 9)
Graeme White st Shah b Bipinbhai 17 (58 all out)
IndiaGaurav Dhiman c Hamilton-Brown b White 48 (72 for 1)
Rohit Sharma run out (Waters) 59 (184 for 2)
Ravikant Shukla c Nelson b James 3 (189 for 3)
Maynak Tehlan b James 43 (243 for 4)