da spicy bet： India defeated England by nine wickets at the CCC Ground in Colombo onThursday
Charlie Austin20-Jan-2000India defeated England by nine wickets at the CCC Ground in Colombo onThursday. The loss means that England, the defending champions, havebeen knocked out of the under-19 World Cup. India is now assured of aplace in the semi-final.Forced to chase a modest English total of 182 the Indian batsmenromped to victory with 7.3 overs remaining. Manish Sharma (86*) andRaneet Ricky (68) thrashed the bowling to all parts of the ground inan opening partnership of 134.Such was the ease with which they defeated England, the Indian playersfelt the need to have some extra practice after the match to brush upon some of their batting and bowling skills.Speaking afterwards to CRICINFO, the Indian coach was a very contentedman. “It turned out to be an easy one, I didn’t expect it to bethat easy. I think we batted pretty well. They didn’t try anythingstupid in the first 15 overs. Our fielding though needs to have a bitmore work as our ground fielding was a bit scratchy.”When asked if the players believed that they could win thistournament, he replied “they are starting to believe in themselvesthat they can do it, having seen most of the teams play. The next onethough is going to be a big one against Sri Lanka.”India dominated the entire match from the moment that they won thetoss and asked England to bat. Sallab Srivastava and Tripathyimmediately caused problems with their pace and prodigiousswing. However despite playing and missing on numerous occasions theEnglish batsmen did not get out to either.Mark Wallace (2) was the first to go when he was run out by a directhit from Yuvaraj Singh in the fourth over. Ian Bell and John Maunder,who was playing his first game of the tour, then battled hard tosurvive. Regularly playing and missing the pair were only parted inthe 15th over when Bell was caught behind off the medium pace ofRitender Sodhi.Michael Carberry and Maunders then put on 38 for the third wicketbefore Maunders was stumped for 32. With England precariously placedon 74-3 off 25 overs the arrival of Gary Pratt changed the tempo ofthe innings. Willing to use his feet, but also quick to cut, he wasthe only player to look comfortable against the spinners.However the 53-run partnership ended when Carberry was caught behindfor 36. The dismissal marked the beginning of the end for England, aswickets were then lost at regular intervals.When it came to England’s turn to bowl they wasted the new ball bybowling far too short on a flat wicket. Manish Sharma and Raneet Rickyplayed themselves in cautiously in the first 15 before taking theattack to the English bowlers.Their batting was a class above anything seen all day. Anything loosefrom the bowlers was punished severely. Not afraid to use their feetto the spinners and prepared to hit all the bowlers over the top theyraced to their target.England’s only consolatory wicket in the afternoon was RaneetRicky, bowled by Murtagh of his inside edge.