Dubai: Riding on half-centuries from Osama Hassan (81) and opener Vriitya Anand (61), the UAE posted an impressive 249 runs against Scotland in the Plate quarter-finals of the ICC Under-19 tournament but their efforts went in vain at the Witrand Oval ground in Potchefstroom, South Africa. Scotland won the match by seven wickets through fighting knocks from their opener Uzzair Shah (71), Tomas Mackintosh (51) and their skipper Angus Guy (43n.o).
Scotland won the toss and put UAE into bat. UAE skipper and opener Aryan Lakra fell for 11 after hitting two boundaries. Anand and one-drop Syed Haider Shah took the score to 43 in 11.4 overs when Shah fell for 14. Anand got a good partner in Jonathan Figgy and together they accelerated the run flow. They put on 51 runs for the third wicket when Figy departed for 31. Anand raced to his half-century but Ansh Tandon got out for 13. Anand fell at the score on 131 after hitting 61 runs off 96 balls with seven boundaries. Next man, Alishan Sharafu fell leg-before for 20 to Danny Cairns, who produced a spell of 4-32 but Osama Hussain lifted UAE from 164 for through some brilliant hitting. He went on to score 81 runs off 68 balls with seven boundaries and a six.
Scotland chased through opener Shah and Ben Davidson (36) putting on 90 runs in just 13.5 overs. Wicket Keeper Tomas Mackintosh and Shah then put on 86 runs for the second wicket. Lakra had Shah caught and bowled for 71. Meanwhile. Karthik Meiyappan had Mackintosh stumped for 57 but their skipper Guy steered his team to the target with 34 balls to spare.
In the Super League quarter-finals, India were restricted to 233-9 in 50 overs by Australia but won the match by 74 runs. Opener Divyansh Saxena got caught behind for 11 while one drop Tilak Varma fell for 2. Captain Priyam Garg quickly followed after scoring just five runs. Wickeeper Dhruv Chand Jurel scored only 15 runs and India were struggling at 114-5 despite opener Yashashvi Jaiswal’s knock of 62 off 82 balls with six boundaries and two sixes. No. 6 batsman Siddhesh Veer hit 25 runs to take the score to 144 before No. 7 Atharva Ankolekar scored 55 runs backed by No. 8 Ravi Bishnoi (30). They gave India a fighting total.
Australia began their chase on a disastrous note. Their opener Fraser McGurk was run out by Saxena for a duck off the first ball. Medium pacer Kartik Tyagi struck thrice to reduced Australia to 17-4 in 2.3 overs. Opener Sam Fanning and Patric Rowe fought back putting on 51 runs for the fifth wicket but Tyagi struck again to remove Rowe for his fourth wicket (4-24). Fanning went on to hit 75 runs but his effort went in vain.
