In the fifth match of the tri-series, Team India-A has given wings to its title hopes by defeating Afghanistan-A by 101 runs in a one-sided match. In this match played on Wednesday (June 17), the Indian Lions, under the leadership of captain Tilak Verma, maintained their dominance in both batting and bowling. With this win, India-A has reached the top of the points table and now the path to the final seems to be clear to a great extent.
The Indian team, who came to bat first, scored a huge score of 319 runs at the loss of 9 wickets in the stipulated 50 overs. Captain Tilak Verma himself took up the responsibility of managing the team and played an important inning of 59 runs in 75 balls. He was fully supported by Priyansh Arya and Kumar Kushagra, who strengthened the team by playing half-century innings (58-58 runs). However, the team’s young star Vaibhav Suryavanshi once again failed to play a big innings. Vaibhav started fast and scored 38 runs, but he could not convert it into a long score. Vaibhav has not been able to score any half-century in the four matches of the series so far, which can be a cause of concern for the team management.
Chasing the target of 320 runs, the entire Afghanistan-A team was reduced to just 218 runs in 36.5 overs. Leading the Indian bowling, Nishant Sindhu broke the back of Afghanistan and bowled brilliantly and took 4 important wickets. He was well supported by Yash Thakur, who took 2 wickets. Bahir Shah struggled for Afghanistan and played an inning of 57 runs, but none of the other batsmen could stand against the Indian bowling. The rest of India’s bowlers—Anukul Roy, Suryansh Shedge, Vipraj Nigam and Anshul Kamboj—also bowled disciplined and took one wicket each.
After this victory, Team India is on top in the points table with 4 points and an excellent net run rate of +0.797. After playing all four matches of the league stage, India are now eyeing the last match between Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. If Sri Lanka wins, the final match will be between India and Sri Lanka. At the same time, if Afghanistan wins, then the points of all three teams will be equal, after which the two final teams will be decided on the basis of ‘net run rate’. At present, India is in a very strong position in terms of net run rate and the ticket to the final is considered sure.
