India's U-19 team on Sunday followed in the footsteps of their seniors to win the U-19 Asia Cup title with a crushing 144-run win against Sri Lanka in the final with Delhi boys Ayush Badoni and Harsh Tyagi playing prominent roles.
Just a week back, the senior team beat Bangladesh in a closely fought final in Dubai to emerge as continental champions.
Runaway favourites, India outplayed Sri Lanka in all departments by first scoring an imposing 303 for six at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium after skipper Prabh Simran Singh won the toss and elected to bat.
All the Indian batsmen contributed with openers Yashasvi Jaiswal (85 off 113 balls) and Anuj Rawat (57 off 79 balls) creating solid foundation with 121-run stand.
However, the highlight of the Indian innings was Badoni's blistering unbeaten knock of 52 off 28 balls which included five sixes and two fours. Along with skipper Prabh Simran (65 n.o. off 37 balls), Badoni added 110 runs in 9.1 overs to literally bat Sri Lanka out of the match.
The island nation were never in the chase as they were all out for 160 in 38.4 overs losing wickets at regular intervals with left-arm spinner Harsh Tyagi registering brilliant figures of 6 for 38 in 10 overs.
He flighted a few and fired a few down the channel in what was his best performance at the U-19 level till date.
India did have one tough match against Bangladesh in the semifinal which they won by two runs.
"I couldn't play today but I am very happy that my team won," India's regular captain Pavan Shah said in the company of his deputy and stand-in skipper Simran.
Man of the match Tyagi, who bowled a disciplined line said: "The instruction was to bowl at one spot after doing a video analysis of the Sri Lanka team. The wicket also assisted the spinners."
It was left-hander Jaiswal, who hit some flowing drives including a pulled six over deep mid-wicket off left-arm spinner Dushith Wellalage.
For his consistency (318 runs in the tournament), Jaiswal was adjudged the man of the tournament.
Indian batting's most entertaining part was the death overs when Badoni and Simran brutally assaulted the opposition spinners.
In an over from left-arm spinner Shashika Dulshan, Badoni hit four sixes with a couple of them landing in the stands.
Brief scores: India U-19: 303/6 in 50 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 85, Anuj Rawat 57, Prabh Simran 65 n.o., Ayush Badoni 52 n.o.) bt Sri Lanka U-19: 160 all out in 38.4 overs (Harsh Tyagi 6-38).
