Left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav became the first Indian bowler to grab a hat-trick in the under-19 cricket World Cup as the defending champion entered the quarterfinals with a patchy five-wicket win over Scotland in a low-scoring Group A match here on Monday.
Kuldeep’s hat-trick was the highlight of a superb bowling effort by the Indians before they survived a collapse of their own to finish at 92 for five in 22.3 overs. The Indians are on top in their group with two wins out of two and just one match to go.
On a pitch, which seemed to be loaded in favour of the bowlers, Scotland won the toss and opted to bat. The decision backfired as the Indian bowlers wrecked havoc.
Opener Andrew Umeed scored half the side’s runs with a 77-ball 44. Gavin Main was the only other Scottish batsman to touch the double-figure mark with a 22-ball 16.
Kuldeep and Aamir Gani were the pick of Indian bowlers with four wickets apiece. But Kuldeep shone brighter with his historic feat, which came in the 19th and 21st over.
Nick Farrar (0), Kyle Stirling (0) and Alex Baum (5) were the batsmen to fall to Kuldeep in the spectacular spell.
The tweaker had Farrar caught by Deepak Hooda at square leg, before trapping Stirling LBW off his last delivery in the 19th over. Kuldeep completed the hat-trick in the 21st over when he crashed through the stumps of Baum. His 10 overs, including a maiden, yielded merely 28 runs.
He was brilliantly backed by off-spinner Gani, who ended Umeed’s resistance by piercing his bat and pad to rattle his stumps. Later he cleaned up the tail to complete a dominating bowling display by the Indians.
The scores:
Scotland 88 in 29.4 overs (Andrew Umeed 44, Kuldeep Yadav four for 28, including hat-trick, Aamir Gani four for 28) lost to India 92 for five in 22.3 overs (Sarfaraz Khan 45 n.o, Chayank Gosain three for 31).
Afghanistan 253 in 49.2 overs (Mohammad Mujtaba 75, Ihsanullah 63, Hashmatullah Shaidi 57, James Bazley three for 69, Cameron Valent three for 59) bt Australia 217 in 48 overs (Jaron Morgan 47, Jake Doran 45, Damien Mortimer 43, J. Bazley 54 n.o, Sharafuddin Ashraf three for 55, Abdullah Adil four for 45).
Bangladesh 233 (Shadman Islam 65, Litton Das 31, Mosaddek Hossain 70) bt Namibia 181 in 49 overs (Xander Pitchers 40, Gerhard Erasmus 37, Jaen Kotze 35, Mustafizur Raham three for 24, M. Hossain three for 29).
Pakistan 283 for eight (Sami Aslam 62, Imam-ul-Haq 88, Hasan Raza 44, Kabua Morea three for 45) bt Papua New Guinea 138 in 30.5 overs (Kiplin Doriga 51, Zafar Gohar four for 35).
