U19 Asia Cup 2023 | Arshin Kulkarni Shines In India's Crushing Win Over Afghanistan
India U19 beat AFG U19 by 7 wickets. [PC: X]
Brief Score: Afghanistan U19 - 173/10 (50 Overs) Jamshid Zadran 43 (75), Mohammad Younus 26(44); Arshin Kulkarni 3/29 (8), Raj Limbani 3/46 (8) lost to India U19 - 174/3 (37.3 Overs) Arshin Kulkarni 70 (105), Musheer Khan 48 (53; Khalel Ahmad 1/28 (8.3), 1/51 (10) by 7 wickets.
Riding on the back of an all-round performance from Arshin Kulkarni, India U19 beat Afghanistan U19 in their first game of the ACC Men’s U19 Asia Cup 2023. The boys in blue were clinical with the ball, before taking down the target by 3 wickets without breaking a sweat at the ICC Academy Ground 1, Dubai.
All-round Indian bowling restrict AFG U19 to a paltry
Earlier, Indian skipper Uday Saharan won the toss and elected to bowl first. Afghanistan U19 had a rough start with the bat as they could only manage a 42 for the loss of one wicket in the first ten overs.
Wafiullah Tarakhil started aggressively but was sent back by Raj Limbani for just 15. Jamshid Zadran and Sohail Khan, at 3, got themselves settled but were soon restricted by Arshin Kulkarni and Murugan Abhishek before any major damage occurred.
Akram Mohammadzai and Numan Shah tried to reconstruct the innings, eyeing a big finish towards the end, but both of them fell before the slog overs started. Momentum was with the boys in blue, and they have never looked back since then.
Afghanistan went from 129 for 3 to 149 for 8 and eventually were bowled out for 173 at the end of 50 overs. Kulkarni and Limbani were the pick of the bowlers for India U19 as they bagged three wickets each. Naman Tiwari also bagged a couple in the middle, finishing with a figure of 2/30.
Steady Arshin with the bat led India U19 home
Arshin Kulkarni scored unbeaten 70. [PC: Arshin Kulkarni]
Chasing 174, opener Adarsh Singh started with three quick boundaries but could not continue for long as he found the point fielder while driving off the bowling of Bashir Ahmad in the very third over. In-form Rudra Patel, who came to bat at three, had a short stay as well, leaving his side two down with only 32 runs on the board.
Skipper Uday Sharan joined Arshin at four and started the reconstruction job. Both of the batters took their time, as the Afghanistan bowlers were keeping things tight in the middle. Just when Saharan was looking to increase the scoring rate, Wahidullah Zadran managed to send back the Indian skipper to get a possible opening for a collapse.
However, it was an in-form Musheer Khan, at five, who was coming into this match on the back of a 39-ball century, started the innings positively and the pressure was back on Afghanistan. Arshin, struck couple boundaries in the middle and completed his half century.
Eventually, there were not enough runs on the board for Afghanistan. Both Arshin and Musheer had an unbeaten 98-run partnership for the fourth wicket, taking India U19 across the line rather comfortably at the end with more than 12 overs to spare.
 "Kaushik Kashyap")
