Surprising everyone, Team India has failed to reach the finals in the Emerging Team Asia Cup 2024. In the second semi-final of the tournament being played in Oman, India A had to face defeat by 20 runs at the hands of Afghanistan A. In the semi-final match held in Muscat, Afghanistan A, batting first, made the highest score of the tournament, 206 runs. In response, even Ramandeep Singh’s excellent inning of 64 runs could not help Team India win and the Indian team could only score 186 runs. Along with this, both the finalist teams of last year’s tournament were eliminated after losing in the semi-finals itself. In the first semi-final, Sri Lanka A had defeated Pakistan Shaheen by 7 wickets.
Explosive partnership of Afghanistan’s openers
Afghanistan A batted first in this match and its openers had laid the foundation for a big score for the team. Sadiqullah Atal and Zubaid Akbari showed attacking style as soon as they arrived and attacked every bowler of Team India. Both of them had scored 61 runs in the powerplay itself and by the 12th over the team had crossed 100 runs. After this, in the 13th over, they created a stir. In this over of leg spinner Rahul Chahar, who has played in the T20 World Cup for Team India, both of them together hit 4 sixes and scored a total of 31 runs. In this over, Rahul also increased the problems for himself and India A by bowling 2 no balls.
Both of them made a partnership of 137 runs for the first wicket. Zubaid played an excellent inning of 64 runs and Atal played an excellent inning of 83 runs. However, Rasikh Salam Dar made a comeback for Team India by taking 2 wickets in a single over. Whereas, 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 had crossed the 200-run mark.
Indian top order failed miserably
To achieve this big target, the Indian team was expecting a strong start from its openers, Prabhsimran Singh (19) and Abhishek Sharma (7), which was seen in the previous matches but it could not happen in this match. Abhishek was out in the third over itself. Prabhasimran also hit some good shots but he too returned to the pavilion in the fifth over, while captain Tilak Verma (16) also failed. After this, Ayush Badoni (31) and Nehal Vadhera (20) made a small partnership but both of them also returned to the pavilion after the score of 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 was broken due to Nishant’s runout and with this the hopes of India A’s comeback also ended. The Indian team could score only 186 runs in 20 overs.
