Bangalored at Vizag

Chawla carved out a sensible 54 before returning with figures of 3/23, while burly Das plundered an unbeaten 66 to ensure India their second massive victory on the trot (by 102 runs) with bonus point in the U-19 Afro-Asia Cup.

“So, another star rising fast from Bengal?” — whether Amre’s words after Das’ impressive knock were a tribute to the young boy or a guarded reference to Ganguly’s exit is not known. It is clear that the Shyambazar kid’s dominance not just with the bat but on the field as well has already made people sit up and take note. And these people include Vengsarkar as the TRDO boss, Amre as the junior national selector and Prasad as the India colts’ coach.

The Chawla-Das duo made all the difference in today’s lop-sided match, as the two struck a racy 129-run partnership for the sixth wicket to bail India out from 108-5 to 237 in just 20 overs.

Chawla’s 62-ball 54 was laced with six boundaries, and it was the perfect foil to Das’ punishing 77-ball effort. The Bengal athlete, an electric presence on the field close-in, punched just five fours, but the sheer disdain and power behind the strokes took the wind out of the opponents, as India piled 81 runs off the last 10 overs on a slowing track.

Brief scores

India 253/6 in 50 overs (Debabrata Das 66 n.o., P Chawla 54, R Shukla 39; R Jaftha 3/53, R Neves 2/22) bt S Africa 151 in 36.4 overs (Van der Schyff 53, D Elgar 32; P Chawla 3/28, S Bandekar 2/22).