Cricket news round-up – January 28: Sri Lanka made to grind, India Under-19s through to semi-finals

Sri Lanka finished Day 2 at Harare on 122/2, still 284 behind Zimbabwe in the first innings; India beat Australia in the quarterfinal of the Under-19s World Cup; and South Africa were docked 6 points in the ICC Test Championship for slow over rates.

Sri Lanka kept at bay

Dimuth Karunaratne and Oshada Fernando had a gruelling two-and-a-half hours to score 44 apiece. Sri Lanka finished Day 2 on 122/2, forced to score at 2.25 an over: they are still 284 behind Zimbabwe.

Resuming on 352/6, Zimbabwe were earlier bowled out for 406, Tinotenda Mutombodzi (33) getting most of these runs. Lasith Embuldeniya finished with 4/182 and Dhananjaya de Silva with 3/71.

India Under-19s reach semi-final

India beat Australia in the first quarterfinal of the Under-19 World Cup, at Potchefstroom. Asked to bat, India were left reeling at 144/6 despite Yashasvi Jaiswal’s 62. Atharva Ankolekar (55) and Ravi Bishnoi (30) then lifted India to 233/9 as Todd Murphy took 2/40 and Corey Kelly 2/45.

Australia were reduced to 4/3 in the first over; by the third, they were 17/4, largely due to Kartik Tyagi (4/24). Akash Singh (3/30) picked up wickets too as Australia were bowled out for 159. Sam Fanning scored 74 of their runs.

Zimbabwe, UAE Under-19s win as well

Zimbabwe Under-19s beat Canada in Plate Group Quarterfinal 3. Emannuel Bawa (105* in 95 balls) and Gareth Chirawu (54* in 45) added an unbroken 130 in 88 balls to lift them from 141/7 to 271/7 (Akhil Kumar 3/63). Led by Sakhumuzi Ndlela (2/34) and Nkosilathi Nungu (2/35), they then bowled out Canada for 176.

Scotland beat UAE in the Plate Group Quarterfinal 4 by 7 wickets. UAE were bowled out for 249 by Daniel Cairns (4/32) despite fifties from Vriitya Aravind (61) and Osama Hassan (81 in 68). Scotland, however, had little trouble chasing down the total inside 45 overs, thanks to Uzzair Shah (71) and Tomas Mackintosh (57* in 50).

South Africa docked points

South Africa were docked 6 points (2 points per over) in the ICC Test Championships for falling 3 overs behind the stipulated over rates in the Johannesburg Test. They became the first team to suffer such ignominy. Each player was also fined 60% of their match fees (20% per over).

It may be worth a mention here that South Africa went into the Test with five seamers – Vernon Philander, Anrich Nortje, Beuran Hendricks, Dane Paterson, and Dwaine Pretorius – but no spinner.