On a cool and hazy morning Dhaka morning, the New Zealand Under-19 team arrived at the Shera Bangla National Stadium full of hope and excitement, understanding that the day’s match against India was to be the most important of their careers to date.
It was a must-win scenario to keep their hopes alive of making the top eight teams at the ICC Under 19 World Cup.
Captain Josh Finnie started the day well by winning the toss and electing to bowl on a wicket that looked like it would assist the bowlers early in the day.
New Zealand’s opening bowlers bowled a very disciplined and aggressive spell, and quickly had the Indians on the back foot at 19/2.
Keeping their lines and lengths tight, they built pressure and scoring opportunities were limited.
Their patience and persistence created a chance at square leg off Christian Leopard’s bowling, however the catch was grassed and the batsman, Sarfaraz Khan, on eight at the time, made the most of his life. He went on to top-score for India with a well composed 74 from 80 runs.
Together with Risabh Pant, he achieved a partnership of 89 for the third wicket that helped rebuild their innings.
Further tight bowling from the young Kiwis created numerous chances but unfortunately, dropping four catches meant that the Indian batsmen were able to stay in and start to score freely, and without further risk.
Zak Gibson, playing his first game of the World Cup, and Nathan Smith bowled superbly throughout the innings and finished with figures of 3/50 and 2/39 respectively off their allotted 10 overs. Armaan Jaffer (46) and Mahipal Lomror (45) scored handy runs at the end of the innings to help the Indian score along to 258/8.
Eager to make a good start to the innings, Rachin Ravindra and Glenn Phillips strode out to the crease with a plan of attacking the Indian opening bowlers.
A good start was needed to get the innings underway, however the team took a knock when Glenn Phillips departed early for only one run.
Avesh Khan, and his partner Khaleel Ahmed, bowled very few bad balls and created pressure that the young New Zealand top order wasn’t able to deal with.
The top soon crumbled to a score of 16/4 in the 10th over. Finn Allen and Leopard looked to play positively and get the innings back on track.
The pair put on an aggressive partnership of 49 for the fifth wicket but Allen’s dismissal for a run-a-ball 29 sparked another mini-collapse, and, with little support from the other end, Leopard soon succumbed for New Zealand's top score of 40 from 40 balls.
With the score at 80/7, the Kiwis were going to need a miracle to get over the line. Aniket Parikh (26 from 26 balls) and Talor Scott (29 from 29 balls) put on 45 for the ninth wicket to offer a bit of resistance at the end, but the result was inevitable as 16-year-old Indian allrounder Lomror added a haul of 5/47 to his 45 runs and finished off the New Zealand innings for 138 in the 32nd over.
The loss means that, even with a win against Ireland tomorrow, the New Zealanders will travel to Cox’s Bazaar to compete in the Plate Competition of the World Cup, with a best possible result of finishing ninth at the tournament.
Although disappointed with not being in the top eight, winning the Plate Competition is a new aim, along with the benefit of gaining further experience of playing in the international stage.
New Zealand’s final pool game against Ireland is at Fatullah on Monday 1 February.
