India continue winning streak, enter final

Winning the toss at the Royal Selangor Club in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, Sri Lankan captain Kanchana Gunawardana put India in to bat. Having won the first three matches they have played in the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Under-15 tournament, India must have been confident. A thumping 90 run victory saw India continue its winning streak and make sure of a place in the final.

This confidence came through clearly in the batting of Palash Jothi Das. The middle order bat made an unbeaten 108 off 101 balls that took India to an imposing total of 237 for five in 40 overs. His century included six boundaries and five hits that cleared the ropes.

Das was well supported by Sushil Kumar who made a useful 53. Sharing a 148-run partnership for the third wicket, Sushil Kumar and Das pushed the score past the 200 mark before the former was dismissed by Mohammed Maharoof.

Ambati Tirupati Rayadu who has had a good run so far, continued to chip in, scoring 37 off 41 balls on this occasion.

For the Lankans, only Ganganath Asanga Ratnayake with 1/26 off eight overs returned reasonable figures. The rest of the bowlers came in for varying degrees of punishment.

The medium pace of all rounder Mrigen Talukdar saw the two Sri Lankan openers back in the pavilion with just 15 runs on the board. Captain Gunawardana was trapped leg before wicket by off spinner Panav Raju before he could open his account and Lanka were in trouble at 16/3. In quick succession Talukdar struck once more and leg spinner Nikhil Rathod sent back Sandun Dias. Sri Lanka were all but defeated with half the team back in the pavilion and just 32 runs on the board.

Having lost early wickets, the Lankans could not seriously chase the total set by the Indians. However, they dragged through their entire allotted 40 overs and managed 147/9.

The Indians had reason to celebrate once more, having packed off the Sri Lankans by a convincing margin.

Although India had won their first three matches with consummate ease, Sri Lanka were unlikely to be a pushover. Before leaving for Malaysia, the coach of the Indian team, Roger Binny said "I think Sri Lanka and Pakistan will be the toughest opposition. Sri Lanka have a very strong junior programme. Schools cricket is very strong there, and they have some very good development programmes as well."

Binny's assessment proved to be an exercise in abundant caution. Although the Lankans did not capitulate in quite the manner of the teams that had lost to India before (Thailand, Malaysia and Bangladesh), they too could not seriously challenge the Indians.

India now play Pakistan in their final inconsequential pool encounter on Wednesday.