Zimbabwe Under-19s win second match in India

ZIMBABWE Cricket’s men under-19 team managed to bounce back from a disappointing start to their preparatory tour of India by convincingly winning their second match of the tour played against Navi Mumbai Sports Association Emerging team Wednesday in Mumbai, India.

Coming from a defeat in their opening encounter of the tour against Club Cricket of India on Monday, the Zimbabwe Under-19 team put up a brilliant all-round performance to beat their opponents by a huge 113 runs.

After they were sent in to bat first, two centuries from the Zimbabwe Under-19s propelled the team to finish on 290/4 in their 50 overs before going on to bowl out the hosts for just 177 runs in 45 overs.

Opening batter, Panashe Taruvinga, who scored a brilliant 90 runs in the first match, managed to get it right on Wednesday with the bat before he fell soon after reaching his century. The youngster fell for 101 runs off 114 balls.

It was Campbell MacMillan who finished as Zimbabwe Under-19’s leading run scorer, top scoring with a brilliantly batted 123 runs off 135 deliveries. Taruvinga’s opening partner, Brandon Sunguro chipped in with 26 runs off 34 balls while Kohl Eksteen finished undefeated on 21 runs after facing 16 balls, helping Zimbabwe post a competitive total.

Zaid Patankar finished with bowling figures of 2/59 for the hosts in his 10-over spell while Dharmik Bharadwaj took one scalp for 31 runs in the four overs that he bowled. The other wicket that fell was a runout.

In the match’s second innings, Zimbabwean bowlers got off to a good start, striking as early as the third ball of the match. Ronak Patel went on to put up a brilliant bowling spell for Zimbabwe, finishing with figures of 4/42 in 10 overs while the skipper, Mathew Schonken took three wickets for 61 runs in 10 overs as well.

Mashford Shungu and Newman Nyahuri took two and one wicket respectively for Zimbabwe Under-19s. Sreyash Kumar and Deven Shinde top-scored for the hosts with 45 runs apiece.

The Zimbabwe Under-19 team is in India for a two-week training camp ahead of next year’s Under-19 Cricket World Cup in South Africa. Since their arrival in India, the country’s next generation of cricketers had been practicing under the gaze of head coach, Prosper Utseya.

Zimbabwe was placed in Group C alongside Australia, Namibia, and Sri Lanka.

Utseya’s starlets will open their campaign on 21 January against Sri Lanka at the Kimberley Oval in the Northern Cape city of Kimberley.

Zimbabwe will then take on Australia on 25 January before facing Namibia in the last group fixture on 27 January at the same venue.

Defending champions India are placed in Group A with Bangladesh, Ireland and the United States of America as they attempt to claim a record sixth Under-19 title.

Group B consists of South Africa, England, West Indies, and Scotland, while Group D is made up of Afghanistan, Pakistan, New Zealand, and Nepal.

The top three sides from each group progress to the Super Six phase of the event ahead of the semi-finals and final in Benoni. – @brandon_malvin