The Indian Under19 even after playing without its original captain and vice-captain in Yash Dhull and Shaik Rashid respectively, recorded its biggest victory by runs in history as it defeated minnows Uganda by whopping 326 runs in the last group stage clash of the Under19 World Cup in Tarouba, Trinidad, West Indies.
The only thing that went in Uganda’s favour in the entire game was the toss, but after deciding to bowl first, they wouldn’t have thought about the beating that their bowlers would receive. Raj Angad Bawa and Angkrish Raghuvanshi lodged daddy hundred with the former scoring unbeaten 162, the second-highest individual score by an Indian batter, only 15 behind Ambati Rayudu’s 177 against England U19 in 2022. Raghuvanshi scored 144 off 120 balls.
Courtesy of these big hundreds, India reached 405 in its 50 overs and thereby managed to score its second-highest total in U19 World Cup history, remaining 20 short of 425-3 it achieved against Scotland U19 at Dhaka in 2004.
With the ball in hand, the Indian colts were on the mark as well and dismissed the African nation on a paltry score of 79 in only the 20th over, thereby registering a win by 326 runs, the biggest ever margin of victory in India’s U19 history. It is also the second-biggest victory margin in the entire world after Australia U19’s 430 runs win over Kenya U19 in 2002.
For India, stand-in skipper Nishant Sindhu picked four wickets with his right arm medium-fast.
In the other three games of the day, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan registered comprehensive victories against United Arab Emirates, Papua New Guinea and Zimbabwe respectively to march to the quarterfinals. With the last day of the league stage over, the quarterfinal lineup has also been decided.
In the quarterfinal, it would be a repeat of the 2020 World Cup final when India would face Bangladesh in the last quarterfinal of the Super League. In the other three Super League quarterfinals, South Africa would take on England while Pakistan would face Australia. In another, all Asia affair, Sri Lanka which haven’t dropped a point till now will take on Afghanistan.