Coolidge (Antiga): The legendary teams of India and Australia, who have defeated their rivals on the field and the corona virus off the field, will face each other in the semi-finals of the Under-19 World Cup here on Wednesday. Due to the Corona epidemic, India’s preparations were greatly hampered. There was no national camp or tournament in the last two years and recently the team came here only after playing the Asia Cup. Four-time champions India started the tournament by defeating South Africa by 45 runs.
After this, however, barely 11 players could gather against Ireland after many players were found to be corona infected. Five players were not available in the second group match against Ireland. Captain Yash Dhul, Vice-Captain Sheikh Rashid, Aaradhya Yadav, Manav Parakh and Siddharth Yadav were hit by the corona virus. All five could not play against Ireland and Uganda, after which the BCCI had to send alternate players. Six reserve players were fielded against Uganda. The Indian team, however, defeated both Ireland and Uganda and defeated Bangladesh in the quarter-finals.
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Now India has a strong team and Nishant Sindhu has also recovered from the infection. However, India will have to improve their batting in the last overs. Prior to that, India scored 307 for five against Ireland and 405 against Uganda, which was their biggest win against the African team. Now there is a strong team like Australia in front. India’s morale must have been boosted by the fact that despite battling Corona, it has reached the last four by winning all the matches. India will play the semi-finals for the fourth time in a row. India has batsmen like Harnoor Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Raj Bawa apart from Dhul and Rashid. Dhul had scored 82 runs in the first match.
In the bowling, Ravi Kumar took three wickets for 14 runs in five overs against Bangladesh. Along with pacer Rajvardhan Hungergekar, spinner Vicky Ostwal and Kaushal Tambe, medium pacer Bawa will be eyeing it. Two-time champions Australia defeated Pakistan in the quarter-finals. They have a great opener, Tig Wealey, who has done exceptionally well so far. He scored 97 runs in 71 balls against Pakistan and India will have to curb his bat. India defeated Australia in the practice match.
Teams and match times
India: Yash Dhul (Captain), Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Harnoor Singh, Raj Bawa, Kaushal Tambe, Dinesh Bana, Nishant Sindhu, Vicky Ostwal, Rajvardhan Hungergekar, Vasu Vats, Ravi Kumar.
Australia: Cooper Connolly (Captain), Campbell Kelaway, Teague Wealey, Aiden Cahill, Corey Miller, Jack Seinfeld, Tobias Snell, William Salzman, Jack Nisbet, Lachlan Shaw, Tom Whitney.
Match Time: evening 6. from 30 (agency)