India emerged group champion with all-win record beating Nepal by seven-wicket in their 3rd and last Group-D curtailed-48 over match of the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur on Monday. The 18-year-old left-hand Indian batsman -cum-wicketkeeper of Delhi, Rishabh Rajendra Pant, set the record of the fastest fifty in the U19 Cricket World Cup history during the match. Pent reached fifty off 18-ball to set the milestone leapfrogging the previous record of West Indies batsman Trevon Griffith who reached the landmark in 19 balls in the 2009-10 edition of the tournament.To emerge the group champion, India, earlier, beat Ireland by 79-run in the first match and New Zealand by 120-run in the 2nd match. Despite the day’s loss Nepal will stay in the race as they confirmed their quarterfinal berth with one match to spare. Nepal started their tournament campaign upsetting New Zealand by 32-run in the first match and outplaying Ireland by 8-wicket in the 2nd match. In the day’s match, replying to 169, mighty India easily chased the target scoring 175 for 3 in 18.1 overs spurred by the opening stand of 124 runs in 9.1 overs between opener Pant and skipper Ishan Kishan. Including his fastest fifty, RR Pent fired 78 off 24 balls featuring nine boundaries and five sixes before being bowled by Prem Tamang. Later, RR Pent was adjudged man of the match. Kishan hit 52 off 40 balls including seven boundaries and three sixes and was caught by Sunil Dhamala off Sandeep Lamichhane bowling at 142/3 in 12.1 overs. Sarfaraz Khan and Armaan Jaffer added unbeaten 21 and 12 runs. P Tamang and S Lamichhane took two and one wickets for 41 and 37 runs.Sent in to bat first, Nepal scored 169 for 8 in 48 overs.Sandeep Sunar scored the highest 37 off 73 balls with four boundaries while Rajbir Singh, Prem Tamang and Aarif Sheikh added 35, 29 and 26 runs. Avesh Khan bagged three wickets for 34 runs in eight overs while Washington Sundar and Mayank Dagar took two wickets each.
