Ramandeep Singh scored a quick half-century but that didn’t work either.
To everyone’s surprise, the Indian team failed to reach the final of the Emerging Teams Asia Cup 2024. In the second semi-final of the tournament held in Oman, India A had to face a 20-run defeat at the hands of Afghanistan A. In the semi-final match held in Muscat, Afghanistan A, batting first, achieved the highest score of the tournament, 206 runs. In response, even Ramandeep Singh’s excellent innings of 64 runs could not help the Indian team win and the Indian team could only score 186 runs. In addition to this, the two finalist teams from last year’s tournament were eliminated after losing in the semifinals themselves. In the first semi-final, Sri Lanka A had defeated Pakistan Shaheen by 7 wickets.
Explosive partnership between Afghanistan openers
Afghanistan A batted first in this match and their opening matches laid the foundation for a big score for the team. Sadiqullah Atal and Zubaid Akbari showed an attacking style as soon as they arrived and attacked all the players of the Indian team. Both had scored 61 runs in the powerplay and by the 12th over the team had crossed 100 runs. After this, in the 13th over, they created a stir in this over from leg-spinner Rahul Chahar, who played in the T20 World Cup for the Indian team, both of them hit 4 sixes together and scored a total of 31 runs. In this over, Rahul also added to the problems for himself and India A by bowling 2 no balls.
The two put on a partnership of 137 runs for the first wicket. Zubaid played an excellent innings of 64 runs and Atal played an excellent innings of 83 runs. However, Rasikh Salam Dar made a comeback for Team India by taking 2 wickets in a single over. While experienced Afghan all-rounder Karim Janat scored 41 runs in just 20 balls in the last overs, taking the team to 206 runs. For the first time in this tournament, a team surpassed the 200-run mark.
The first Indian order failed miserably
To achieve this big goal, the Indian team expected a good start from their openers, Prabhsimran Singh (19) and Abhishek Sharma (7), which was seen in the previous matches but could not happen in this match. Abhishek was out in the third over himself. Prabhasimran also played some good shots but also returned to the pavilion in the fifth over, while captain Tilak Verma (16) also missed. After this, Ayush Badoni (31) and Nehal Vadhera (20) formed a small partnership but both also returned to the pavilion after scoring 100 runs in the 13th over.
Ramandeep’s efforts also proved inadequate
After the fall of five wickets, defeat seemed certain but here Ramandeep Singh raised hopes of a comeback with his explosive innings. Ramandeep, who played for Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL, showed his ability just 6 days before the retention deadline, scoring boundaries and also scored a half-century in just 26 balls. There was an excellent partnership of 68 runs in 31 balls between Ramandeep and Nishant Sindhu (23), but it broke down due to the departure of Nishant and with this India A’s comeback hopes also ended. The Indian team could only score 186 runs in 20 overs.
