India U-19 team looks to carry on momentum against New Zealand

India, which is atop its group with four points, had cruised to a 90-run victory over Sri Lanka in its opening encounter before outclassing debutant Japan by 10 wickets withe disciplined bowling effort. The Priyam Garg-led side will start as favourite against New Zealand on Friday. New Zealand, on the contrary, was unlucky to share a point with Japan after its match was washed out in Potchefstroom last week. However, it managed to clinch a late winner against Sri Lanka and booked a place in the last eight.

New Zealand, which had finished eighth on home soil in 2018, will be looking to follow a similar trajectory as its senior counterparts, which reached the finals of the men’s World Cup last year, in this edition of the U-19 showpiece. Having won the warm-up matches against Zimbabwe and Afghanistan and the quadrangular series, the Indian team would not want to lose the rhythm at any cost.

In its previous outing, India leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi (4/5) took four wickets while pacers Kartik Tyagi (3/10) and Akash Singh (2/11) shared five scalps among themselves to help the four-time champions bundle out Japan for 41, the joint second lowest total by a team in the U-19 World Cup and joint third lowest in the U-19 cricket history. India then completed the formalities with openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and Kumar Kushagra remaining unbeaten on 29 and 13 respectively. The bowling performance prompted skipper Garg to heap praise on his pace unit. “Very happy with the performance. The spinners were good, but the lines and lengths could have been better from the pacers,” Garg had said after the match.