U-19 World Cup: Skipper Yash Dhull’s century helps India eliminate the Aussies

India beat Australia by 96 runs on Wednesday to reach their fourth consecutive U-19 World Cup final. The team, led by Yash Dhull, will clash with England in the finals on Saturday.

The skipper hit 110 in as many balls and shared a 204-run partnership with his deputy Shaik Rasheed (94 off 108 balls) to get the team to 290 for five after opting to bat. Indian bowlers then managed to bowl Australia out for 194 in 41.5 overs.

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Pacers Rajvardhan Hangargekar (0/26) and Ravi Kumar (2/37) were impressive in the first powerplay before spinners Nishant Sindhu (2/25), Vicky Ostwal (3/42) and Kaushal Tambe (1/32) dominated the opposition in the middle overs.

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Lachlan Shaw was the highest scorer for the team, hitting a fighting 51 off 66. Australia will now face Afghanistan in the third-place playoff match on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Yash Dhull became the third Indian captain to hit a hundred in the tournament history after Virat Kohli (2008) and Unmukt Chand (2012).

Prior to Wednesday’s match, Dhull had the team’s win against Australia in a warm-up game will not have any “substantial impact” in the game.

“The wicket in the warm-up match against Australia Under-19s was different to the one we will have in the semifinal tomorrow,” he said on the eve of the match.

“The game will be played depending on the pitch conditions. So, we will only know tomorrow how we will bowl and how we can put Australia under pressure. We will look to play with a positive mindset. We will look to set the target as per the condition of the wicket and the situation of the match,” he added.