2018 Under-19 World Cup, India vs Papua New Guinea: Things which went right for India

The Prithvi Shaw-led Under-19 Indian team made a light work of minnows Papua New Guinea to win their second Group B encounter by 10 wickets with 252 balls remaining at Mount Maunganui on Tuesday.

The young Indian side, who had a perfect start to their campaign after they defeated the three-time winners Australia by 100 runs in the first match on Sunday, entered the quarterfinals with their second win at Bay Oval.

India will play their final group stage game against Zimbabwe at the same venue on Friday, January 19.

Now, let us have a look at five important factors that led to India's win.

#5 Opening spell by Indian pacer duo

India Under-19 skipper Prithvi Shaw won the toss and invited Papua New Guinea to bat first.

As expected, the Indian pacer duo of Shivam Mavi and Kamlesh Nagarkoti did not let their opposition to settle and reduced them to tatters with their opening spells.

Mavi, who opened the bowling for India, dismantled Papua New Guinea's top order and ended up claiming 2 for 16 in his 5 overs. He also ran opener Simon Atai out.

On the other hand, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, who was ferocious against Australia as he was clocking 140kmph consistently, troubled the PNG batsmen with his pace too and claimed a wicket by giving away 17 runs in his 6 overs.

#4 India's fielding skills

These days, excellent ground fielding and catching skills are very important for a team to be successful in the international arena and this young Indian side excels in these two departments.

The Indian boys were at the top of their in every aspect of the game and simply outplayed their opponents.

Although Papua New Guinea is considered to be a weak opposition, Indians did not get complacent in the field and did not give any chances away to their rivals.

Even against Australia, the Indian team held on to their catches and ran two batsmen out courtesy their excellent throwing skills, which proved to be a major differentiator between the two teams in the end.

#3 Prithvi Shaw's captaincy

It is very important for a team to have an excellent leader at the helm if they wish to be successful and Prithvi Shaw is just what this Indian team needed.

It is vital for a skipper to lead by example and Shaw does just that.

He plays to his strengths and makes an efficient use of the resources at his disposal.

Even at this young age, the Indian skipper is quite confident in his choices and makes the arduous task of leading a team on the international stage look like a cakewalk.

In the opening game against Australia, the young skipper led from the front with a 94-run knock and shared a 180-run stand with fellow opener Manjot Kalra (86) to power India to a colossal 328/7.

#2 Opening partnership

India took just 8 overs to achieve the target of 65 runs that was set for them by Papua New Guinea.

The Indian openers Prithvi Shaw and Manjot Kalra continued their fine run of form and picked up from where they had left in the tournament opener against Australia on Sunday and ended up sharing an unbeaten opening stand of 65 to defeat their opponents by 10 wickets with 252 balls remaining.

Shaw brought up back-to-back fifties and remained unbeaten on 57 off 39 balls, while Kalra was not out on 9 as India crossed the finish line with no hiccups whatsoever.

Even during the first match, Shaw scored 94 and shared a 180-run stand with fellow opener Kalra (86) to power India to a colossal 328/7.

#1 Performance of spinner Anukul Roy

Left-arm spinner Anukul Roy left the Papua New Guinea batsmen completely clueless as he picked up a five-wicket haul on Tuesday.

After deadly opening spells by Indian pacers Shivam Mavi and Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Roy wreaked havoc as he ran through PNG's middle and lower order finishing the match with figures of 5 for 14 in 6.5 overs.

As a unit, Indian bowlers were totally unplayable as their opposition folded at 64 in 21.5 overs and the 50-over a side match ended within three hours.