Vihaan Malhotra leads India's revival as Bangladesh capitulate
A stunning revival led by Vihaan Malhotra helped India beat Bangladesh by 18 runs in their second game. On top for most parts of the game, Bangladesh choked right at the end to lose their last 8 wickets for just 40 runs and squander their position to fall short in a rain-affected encounter in Bulawayo. Batting first, India got off to a disastrous start losing two wickets in the third over. Vaibhav Suryavanshi was unperturbed and kept finding the boundary regularly in usual fashion with Malhotra at the other end biding his time. Before the end of the powerplay, Bangladesh also saw the back of Malhotra to remain on top.
Suryavanshi brought up a fifty off just 30 balls and appeared to revive India alongside Abhigyan Kundu. Against the run of play, Iqbal Hossain Emon struck twice in two overs to peg India back again. Kundu put on a one-man show and hit a fighting half-century for his side before the rain arrived for the first time to reduce the contest to 49 overs per side. Post resumption, Kundu helped himself to 80 with India getting bowled out for 238.
Even though Bangladesh lost a wicket in the very first over, Bangladesh raced to 54/1 in the opening 10 overs to put India under early pressure. Another rain break followed and this time, the players were off the field for a considerable period of time forcing a further reduction in overs. When the game finally resumed, Bangladesh's target was revised to 165 in 29 overs. That was a target they were primed to hunt down when they were comfortably placed at 102/2 after 20 overs.
However, a twist was in store when Malhotra came back into the attack and broke the 44-run partnership. Azizul Hakim Tamim continued to motor along and even hammered a six in the very next over before bringing up a fifty but Malhotra struck again at the other end to cause some panic in the opposition camp. Khilan Patel piled on the pressure with the big wicket of the half-centurion and from thereon, Bangladesh continued to drown. Both Malhotra and Patel made further inroads before Henil Patel put an end to Bangladesh's misery with the final wicket.
A record partnership in Men's Under-19 World Cup between Sri Lanka's openers headlined their massive win over Japan. Dimantha Mahavithana and Viran Chamuditha added 328 runs for the opening wicket - only the second ever 300-plus partnership in Men's U19 World Cup history - to help Sri Lanka post a daunting total of 387/4 on the board.
The two batters were at the crease for the major part of the innings and at one stage it did appear like they would bat out the 50 overs before the partnership was finally broken in the 44th over of the innings. Mahavithana departed for 115 but Chamuditha continued to make merry against the Japanese attack and looked set to become the first batter to score a double century in the tournament's history. He agonisingly fell 8 runs short but broke the record for the highest individual score.
Once Sri Lanka posted that mammoth total, the contest was pretty much done and dusted as Japan also lost a wicket off the second ball in the run chase. A 55-run partnership ensued but Japan showed no urgency whatsoever to pursue the target. The Sri Lankan bowlers then continued to pick wickets at regular intervals whereas Hugo Kelly put up a fight and batted 162 deliveries to bring up an unbeaten century. In the end, Japan finished with 184/8 to fall short comfortably by 203 runs.
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