14-year old opener slams 171 with 14 sixes Indians in smashing show at U-19 Asia Cup opener

Vaibhav Suryavanshi

India’s budding cricketers smashed a whopping total of 433 for 6 in 50 overs as they smashed the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by 234 runs in the curtain raiser match of the Under-19 Asia Cup in Dubai yesterday.

The unreachable target set by India was made possible by a pulverising innings of 171 by opening batsman Vaibhav Suryavanshi who clobbered as many as 14 sixes to go with his nine fours after the home team won the toss and made the mistake of electing to bowl first on what was a sound batting pitch.

The 14-year old Suryavanshi needed just 95 balls to score his runs.

When he was dismissed, the third out with the total at 265, India still had 17 overs in the bag to do as they pleased against the hapless UAE bowlers.

The UAE may have harboured hopes of bowling out the Indians for a low score by grabbing the first wicket with just eight runs on the board. But Suryavanshi had other ideas as he smashed the bowlers to all parts of the ground joined by Aaron George who smacked 69 with seven fours and a six in just 55 balls for a stand of 213 in just 24.2 overs.

There was no respite for the UAE bowlers even after the exist of George and Suryavanshi as the rest of the Indian batters that followed had no mercy on their host and piled up a further 168 runs in the remaining 17.1 overs.

When India set about to defend their total, the end result was a foregone conclusion as the UAE crawled for their runs before they were restricted to 199 for 7 in 50 overs.

The Indians even toyed with the UAE batters by using as many as nine bowlers.

Scores:
India (U-19) 433 for 6 in 50 overs (Vaibhav Suryavanshi 171, Aaron George 69, Vihaan Malhotra 69)
UAE  (U-19)  199 for 7 in 50 overs (Prithvi Madhu 50, Uddish Suri 78 not out)