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India A began their campaign in the ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup 2023 with a convincing eight-wicket win over UAE A at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo on Friday, July 14. The Yash Dhull-led side chased down the target of 176 with more than 20 overs to spare, thanks to the skipper's unbeaten century.
Earlier, UAE A won the toss and opted to bat first, but they were soon reduced to 66/5 by the 14th over. India A's pacer Harshit Rana took a 4-fer while left-arm spinner Manav Suthar and pacer Nitish Kumar Reddy took two wickets each.
UAE A's middle order tried to rebuild the innings, with Ashwanth Valthapa scoring 46 and Muhammad Fazharuddin's 35. However, they could not accelerate the scoring rate and kept losing wickets at regular intervals and finished on 175 for nine in their 50 overs.
India A's chase was off to a shaky start as they lost Sai Sudarshan and Abhishek Sharma inside the first six overs. However, captain Yash Dhull and Nikin Jose steadied the ship with an unbeaten 138-run partnership for the third wicket. Dhull scored a fluent 108 not out off 84 balls, while Jose supported him with a solid 41 not out off 53 balls as India A reached the target in 26.3 overs and secured a comfortable win.
Yash Dhull was adjudged the player of the match for his scintillating knock of 108 and the youngster has something to prove after not being picked for the Asian Games. Dhull will look to push on from here and look to make his case for an India cap. India gained a net run rate of +3.255 with this win which might be useful in the latter part of the group stages for the Indians. India A will next face Nepal A on July 17 while UAE A will face Pakistan A on the same day.
