U-19 World Cup: Windies pacers demolish Indian line-up

The West Indies produced a strong bowling performance to bundle out India for a meagre 145 runs in 45.1 overs in the final of the ICC Under-19 cricket World Cup at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium here on Sunday.

Sarfaraz Khan (51 off 89) was the top scorer for the three-time winners, as the talented Indian batting line-up failed to impress on the crucial day.

For the West Indies, Ryan John (3-38) and Alzarri Joseph (3-39) were the pick of the bowlers.

Sent to bat first on a green top, India got off to a worst possible start by losing opener Rishabh Pant (1) off the fourth ball of the innings as some alacrity and an under-arm throw from wicket-keeper Tevin Imlach saw the batsman getting out.

From there on India found it really difficult to hit the ball as the pacers used the fast and bouncy wicket to good effect to deny the batsmen any room to score.

As India aimed to recover after the first wicket, the team received two consecutive blows as incoming batsman Anmolpreet Singh (3) and skipper Ishan Kishan (4) fell in a space of four overs to leave India struggling at 27/3 in the seventh over.

Incoming batsman Sarfaraz along with Washington Sundar (7) looked to stick on after three early wickets but the 15th over saw the Sundar plopping a simple catch to mid-off off the bowling of John.

It was not the end of slide as another incoming batsman, Armaan Jaffer (5), was dismissed to put India in a spot of bother at 50/5 in the 18th over.

As wickets fell in clusters, Sarfaraz inched closer to yet another half-century but was running out of partners.

Mahipal Lomror (19) coming in at six down gave some good support to Sarfaraz but his stay was short-lived as some outstanding bowling backed by good fielding saw another Indian wicket going down.

As the lower order batsmen came in, Sarfaraz had no other option but to pile on some quick runs and while looking to do that, he too fell leg-before-wicket off the bowling off John.

Soon after his dismissal, India's hope of getting closer to a respectable total was all over.