India need 217 to win the Under 19 World Cup as the men-in-blue restricted the mighty Australia to 216 runs.
Earlier in the day, Australia skipper Jason Sangha had won the toss and elected to bat first against India at the Bay Oval on Saturday.
Batting first, the Australian batsmen failed in finding a firm ground as wickets fell on regular interval. Jonathan Merlo (76 runs) scored his first U19 half century and kept the fight of his team alive.
Indian bowlers capitalized the situation very well as Kamlesh Nagarkoti (2/42), Shiva Singh (2/36), Ishan Porel (2/30) and Anukul Roy (2/32) bagged two wickets each.
Australian lower order collapse didn’t not even allow the ‘yellow-team’ to play all the overs as last four wickets fell for just 4 runs.
Both teams remained unchanged from the last game. In a group stage encounter, India thrashed the Aussies by 100 runs earlier in the competition.
Teams:
India U-19: Prithvi Shaw (captain), Manjot Kalra, Shubman Gill, Harvik Desai(wk), Riyan Parag, Abhishek Sharma, Anukul Roy, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi, Shiva Singh, Ishan Porel
Australia U-19: Jack Edwards, Max Bryant, Jason Sangha(captain), Jonathan Merlo, Param Uppal, Nathan McSweeney, Will Sutherland, Baxter J Holt(wk), Zak Evans, Ryan Hadley, Lloyd Pope