Cricket news round-up – January 15: Australia pummel India in series opener, Bangladesh to tour Pakistan

Australia thrashed India by a 10-wicket margin in the first ODI of the 3-match series; Bangladesh will tour Pakistan thrice for a split tour; and India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and South Africa won their respective warm-up matches ahead of the Under-19 World Cup.

Australia pulverise India to go one-up

Australia beat India by 10 wickets in the first ODI of the 3-match series, at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. Set 256, Australia reached home inside 38 overs as David Warner (128* in 112 balls) and Aaron Finch (110* in 114) dominated an almost full-strength Indian attack.

Asked to bat, India were earlier bowled out for 255. This, after Shikhar Dhawan (74) and KL Rahul (41) had taken them to 134/1. Mitchell Starc (3/56), Kane Richardson (2/43), and Pat Cummins (2/44) were all accurate without compromising on pace, forcing the Indians into committing errors at regular intervals.

Bangladesh to tour Pakistan

Bangladesh will tour Pakistan later this month for the first installment of their across-formats tour of Pakistan. The schedule, a most singular one, is as follows:
Leg 1: T20Is, on January 24, 25, 27, all at Lahore
Leg 2: Test from February 7 at Rawalpindi
Leg 3: ODI on April 3, Test from April 5, both at Karachi

The unusual format is due to the Pakistan Super League, which will run from February 20 to March 22.

Varma, Garg help India Under-19s win

India beat Zimbabwe by 22 runs in their warm-up match ahead of the Under-19 World Cup. Batting first, they were bowled out for 295, Tilak Varma and Priyam Garg scoring 73 apiece. Led by Kartik Tyagi (3/33), they then bowled out Zimbabwe for 273 despite fifties from Dane Schadendorf (81), Luke Oldknow (66), and Milton Shumba (52).

Tahir orchestrates Pakistan Under-19s triumph

There was no Naseem Shah, but left-arm seamer Tahir Hussain (4/41) and his mates turned out to be more than a handful for Sri Lanka as they were bowled out for 215 (Sonal Dinusha 68, Nipun Dananjaya 55). Fahad Munir (51 retired) and Mohammad Haris (43) then guided Pakistan to a 4-wicket win.

Afghanistan Under-19s stun England

Afghanistan beat England by 21 runs. They first scored 205/8, a total set up by Abdul Rahman (54) and Mohammad Ishaq (43), Blake Cullen taking 3/25. Led by Fazal Haque (3/32), they then bowled out England for 184, Abdul taking 2/32 to complete a superb match performance.

South Africa blow Nigeria away

Nigeria turned out to be no match for South Africa. They hung around for 37 overs, but only one of them (Samuel Mba, 12) went past 7 as they were bowled out for 61. Five Protean bowlers took 2 wickets apiece. Led by Bryce Parsons (48 in 28), South Africa then won by 8 wickets inside 9 overs.