Ahmed fires India to ICC u-19 final

Chris Dhambarage

Cricket: Paceman Abu Nechim Ahmed produced a fiery spell of bowling to spearhead India into the Cup championship final as they trounced England by a massive margin of 234 runs in their under 19 Youth World Cup first semifinal match played under lights at the R. Premadasa Stadium yesterday.

Ahmed captured four quick wickets for just 14 runs during a sensational six over burst as England were shot out for a mere 58 runs in 20 overs chasing India's formidable total of 292. Together with Yomahesh the pair played havoc with the England batting while claiming the first five wickets for only 16 runs.

In fact only number ten batsman Graeme White managed to enter double figures and the extras were the second top scorer with eleven. The super sub Monish Parmar then wrapped up the innings while snapping up the last two England wickets from seven deliveries.

Earlier India put up a tremendous batting display to pile up an imposing 292 for 4 from their 50 overs. Dashing opener C. Pujara led the run spree with a magnificent 129 not out and R. Sharma provided good support with a run a ball 59. The pair were associated in a second wicket stand of 112 runs in even time.

INDIA 

G. Dhiman c Hamilton b White 		48 
C. Pujara not out 			129 
R. Sharma run out 			59 
R. Shukla c Nelson b James 		3 
M. Tehlan b James 			26 
R. Jadeja not out 			14 
Extras 13 
TOTAL for 4 wickets in 50 overs 		292 
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-72, 2-184, 3-184, 4-	243. 

BOWLING: Nelson 5-1-14-0, Waters 5-1-55-0, White 10-0-33-1, 
James 10-0-60-2, Ali 10-0-51-0, Mullaney 3-0-35-0, Brown 7-0-43-0. 

ENGLAND 

V. Chopra b Ahmed 			2 
M. Stoneman b Ahmed 		2 
M. Nelson c Das b Yomahesh 		6 
M. Ali c Shukla b Ahmed 		4 
H. Brown c Shukla b Ahmed 		1 
B. Wright c Das b Yomahesh		 2 
S. Mullaney c Tehlan b Dhiman 		7 
N. James c Shukla b Chawla 		5 
G. White st. Shah b Parmar 		17 
J. Simpson lbw b Parmar 		1 
H. Waters not out 			0 
Extras 				11 
TOTAL all out in 20.1 overs 		58 

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-3, 2-12, 3-12, 4-13, 5-16, 
6-22, 7-35, 8-38, 9-49 
BOWLING: Yomahesh 6-0-14-2, Ahmed 6-1-14-4, 
Dhiman 3-0-11-1, Chawla 4-1-17-1, Parmer 1.1-1-0-2.