'Idea was to play every ball on its merit', says Adarsh Singh on match-winning 76 in U19 WC

Bloemfontein, Jan 21 (IANS) In India's 84-run win over Bangladesh to kick off their Men’s U19 World Cup campaign on a high, opener Adarsh Singh played a crucial role by overcoming a slow start to make an impressive 76, taking his team to 251/7, which was enough for the triumph.

India was 31/2, but Adarsh hung around and grinded hard to overcome the early struggles and hit six boundaries in his knock while stitching a crucial 116-run stand for the third wicket with captain Uday Saharan (64).

“Feels great (on winning Player of the Match award). Expected some movement early on, idea was to play every ball on its merit. When we lost two wickets early, the chat with Uday was to not try something big.”

“Boundaries are big here so we just wanted to rotate strike, convert 1s into 2s. We've played with these guys in the Quadrangular Series in India. There was no specific plan against any bowler. My favourite shot is the cover drive, was nice to play a few,” said Adarsh, hailing from Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, on his match-winning performance, to the broadcasters.

Cameos from Aravelly Avanish (23 off 17 balls) and Sachin Dhas (26 off 20 balls) helped India get past 250, even as pacer Maruf Mridha took a five-wicket haul. With the ball, vice-captain, left-arm spinner Saumy Kumar Pandey took 4/24 as India bowled out Bangladesh for 167 in 45.5 overs.

“We worked on our plans. We didn't want to focus on the non-cricketing drama. We executed our plans and here we are. We lost two quick wickets, but we were calm. Adarsh played a brilliant knock. We knew that runs would come. All the bowlers were impressive. Every game is important for us,” said captain Saharan.

India’s next match in Group A of the U19 Men’s World Cup will be against Ireland at Mangaung Oval in Bloemfontein on January 25.