Chanderpaul leads U-19 Windies into World Cup quarters

Abu Dhabi, Feb 19 (IANS/CMC) Tagenarine Chanderpaul missed his century by seven runs in another thrilling batting display as the West Indies romped to a comfortable 63-run win over Canada in their Group C match of the ICC Under-19 World Cup here at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium.

Tagenarine, son of the illustrious Shivnarine Chanderpaul, scored 93, his consecutive Player-of-the-Match performance, to lead the West Indies into the knock-out stage after his unbeaten 84 Sunday steered his team to a crushing 167-run win over Zimbabwe.

The young Guyanese struck five fours and a six and shared three half-century partnerships powering the Caribbean side to 289/4 before bowling the Canadians out for 226.

Chanderpaul added 62 for the first wicket with Shimron Hetmyer, who was run out for 39 after hitting four fours and a six. He further strengthened his team's position with a 95-run stand for the second wicket with Jeremy Solozano, who smashed three fours in his 50 before being apped leg before the wicket.

The West Indies run rate slowed after the loss of Solozano and Jonathan Drakes in quick succession. However, Nicolas Pooran resumed the run flow smashing an unbeaten 67 off 41 balls, hitting three fours and four sixes.

Pooran added 77 for the fourth wicket with Chanderpaul in 10.1 overs before unleashing the big shots and pushing the West Indies' total up by 31 in the last 10 balls.

Canada, who were asked to field, were off to an encouraging start losing just two wickets before crossing the 100-mark. They scored slowly with Nikhil Dutta (62) and Tahla Shaikh (45) putting on 88 for the fourth wicket but once Shaikh was run out, the next six wickets tumbled for only 29 runs.

Captain Ramaal Lewis, Ray Jordan and Jerome Jones picked up two wickets each while Gudakesh-Moti-kanhai picked up one.

England and Sri Lanka also qualified for the quarterfinals. England defeated New Zealand by 115 runs while Sri Lanka scored an eight-wicket win over hosts United Arab Emirates.

--IANS/CMC

ss/vt