A clinical display by India saw the overwhelming favourites defeat a young Ireland Under-19s Men’s team at the ICC Under-19s Men’s Cricket World Cup yesterday.
With an innings of 307, India would prevail by 174 runs in Trinidad.
St Johnstons Scott McBeth hit 32 runs as Ireland were all out for 133.
Macbeth’s powered late runs came from 40 balls that included three fours and two eye-catching sixes.
Ireland’s last Group Stage match is back at the same venue on Friday against South Africa in a winner-takes-all match where the victorious side will advance to the Super 8 stage, and the defeated side will go into the Plate draw.
Ireland Captain Tim Tector said:
“You have to give credit to India – they came out with the bat and put pressure on us straight away. We didn’t bowl well up front, but in the middle period we dragged them back pretty well, so they were a few positives we can take – but full credit to India today.
“After the start they had, we were pretty happy to restrict them to 300 – the wicket was pretty good, there wasn’t a huge amount of movement on it, and with the outfield you could get a lot of value for your shots. It was always going to be a challenge for us, but we were going to give it our best shot – unfortunately it didn’t come off for us.
“They then got a few early wickets which put us on the back foot – I thought we could have been a bit more proactive looking for those quick runs in the ring, while waiting for the bad ball, but credit to India – they didn’t give us much width or many bad balls.
“It was great to get a game here today, we play South Africa here on Friday which is now just a straight shoot-out for the Super 8s, we’ll go away and prepare then be ready for Friday.”
