Proving that the luring Indian Premier League was no distraction, Indians thumped England by seven wickets to storm into the semifinals of the Under-19 Cricket World Cup here on Sunday.

The Indians, seeded second behind defending champions Pakistan, sent England into bat and rolled them over for 146 in 46 overs and then chased the paltry target for the loss of three wickets in 39.1 overs at the Kinrara Oval.

Opener Taruwar Kohli scored a patient half-century to help carve out an Indian win after left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdullah took three for 29 and seamer Siddarth Kaul and left-arm slow bowler Ravindra Jadeja claimed two wickets each to make it a low-scoring affair.

India will next play the winner of the match between Sri Lanka and New Zealand, who play their quarterfinal match on Monday.

The BCCI has directed Indian Premier League franchisees not to sign contracts with the players of U-19 World Cup squad for the time being as the Board feares that the money involved in the Twenty20 extravaganza would distract the juniors.

Kohli (63 not out off 111 balls) and other opener Sreevats Goswami (26 off 60 balls) tackled English pace attack with their cautious approach and put on 65 runs in 20 overs.

After Goswami was out in the next over, Tanmay Srivastava (22) combined with Kohli and the runs continued to come at a steady pace.

Off-spinner Tom Westley, however, tried to destabilise the Indian line-up by picking quick wickets of Srivastava and captain Virat Kohli (8) the space of 10 runs.

Firm guard

But with Taruwar Kohli firmly guarding one end, Sourabh Tiwary helped (17 not out) India romp home.

Taruwar Kohli, who hails from Jalandhar, became the tournament’s leading scorer with 207 runs in four matches.
For England, opener James Taylor (41) was the lone batsman to put up brave face.

In another quarterfinal of the day, South Africa thrashed Bangladesh by 201 runs at the Bayuemas Oval.
Put in to bat, South Africa, after setting Bangla a 243-run target, skittled them for 41 runs in 11.5 overs.

Eighteen-year-old captain Wayne Parnell was instrumental in the South African win as he put up an all-round show hitting 57 off 60 balls and then grabbing six wickets for eight runs.

South Africa were reduced to 69-4 at one stage but Jonathan Vandiar (45) and Yaseen Vallie scored 66 runs in partnership for the fifth wicket.

The South Africans will next meet the winner of the match between Pakistan and Australia.