Sunday brought a mixture of good and bad news for Indian cricket. In the senior’s third T20 match at Vishakhapatnam, Ravichandran Ashwin spun the Sri Lankans out of the match as India recorded an emphatic 9-wicket victory. Despite losing Pune’s first ODI, India won the second ODI at Ranchi on Friday and Sunday’s one-sided show gave them a 2-1 series win. However at Dhaka’s under-19 World Cup final on the same day, tournament favorites India lost because of poor batting. West Indies elicited a solid advantage by scuttling out India for 145 and reached the victory target after losing 5 wickets for 77. The sixth wicket pair of Keacy Carty and Keemo Paul remained unbeaten till the end as West Indies won by 5 wickets. In whatever manner the victory came for the West Indies, India lost its chance to win the U-19 World Cup for the fourth time after Unmukt Chand led the 2012 Indian U-19 team to victory against hosts Australia.
After losing the first ODI at Pune, India attained parity by beating Sri Lanka at Ranchi. At Vishakhapatnam, MS Dhoni won the toss and decided to bowl first. The decision paid off instantly with R Ashwin taking the new ball and sending both openers back in the first over. Six balls later, Ashwin came back to claim Dinesh Chandimal and when the ace spinner bowled his third over, he removed Asela Gunaratne and Sri Lanka reeled at 20/4 in the 4th over. From there, Sri Lanka could never lift themselves up and kept losing wickets. R Ashwin’s 4/8 broke Sri Lanka’s back and literally laid a path for India’s ultimate victory. Among falling wickets, only Dasun Shanaka offered some resistance with a 24-ball 19 with Thisara Perera being the only other Sri Lankan to reach double figures as India bowled out the visitors for 82 in 18 overs.
In faraway Dhaka, Indian Under-19 squad didn’t have the same luck as their seniors at Vishakhapatnam. The boys were playing the final of 2016 U-19 World Cup against West Indies and after their creditable performance throughout the tournament, India looked every bit the favorites to win. India batted first after West Indies’ skipper Shimron Hetmyer won the toss and chose to field. Going by their batting record in the tournament, India were expected to mount a challenging total but that is precisely, where they lost the initiative. Losing two wickets by the third over and two more by 15th sent India went into a tizzy at 41/4. They now needed someone to rescue them and the only man, who attempted that was Sarfaraz Khan. However, there was no way Sarfaraz could prevent his colleagues at the other end from committing errors. Sarfaraz had a creditable batting performance throughout the tournament and to his credit, he added 37 with Mahipal Lomror for 6th wicket. But once Lomror departed, Sarafarz got desperate. After making an 83-ball 51, Sarfaraz fell in trying to break the shackles. After Sarfaraz’s departure, India’s innings ended at 145 all out in 46th over.