Ireland's Under 19 cricketers were given a lesson by tournament favourites India as they slumped to a 174-run loss in Trinidad.

Indian openers Harnoor Singh (88) and Angkrish Raghuvanshi with a run-a-ball 79 set the tone with an opening stand of 164 and from there it was all really about damage limitation.

YMCA left-arm spinner Jamie Forbes (1-38) bowled economically, while Muzamil Sherzad claimed three late wickets, before taking late punishment as 42 came from the last three overs.

A total of 307 for 5 was always going to be beyond Ireland and so it proved as they lost a flurry of early wickets.

Josh Cox overcame a stodgy start to make 28, while St Johnston’s Scott Macbeth powered late runs – he top-scored with 32 from 40 balls, including three fours and two powerful sixes.

Nathan McGuire (14) and Matthew Humphreys (16*) added consolation runs, but Ireland were all out in the 39th over for 133.

Ireland’s last Group Stage match is back at the same venue on Friday against South Africa in a winner-takes-all match where the victorious side will advance to the Super 8 stage, and the defeated side will go into the Plate draw.

“You have to give credit to India – they came out with the bat and put pressure on us straight away," said captain Tim Tector afterwards.

"We didn’t bowl well up front, but in the middle period we dragged them back pretty well, so they were a few positives we can take – but full credit to India today.

“After the start they had, we were pretty happy to restrict them to 300 – the wicket was pretty good, there wasn’t a huge amount of movement on it, and with the outfield you could get a lot of value for your shots. It was always going to be a challenge for us, but we were going to give it our best shot – unfortunately it didn’t come off for us.

“They then got a few early wickets which put us on the back foot – I thought we could have been a bit more proactive looking for those quick runs in the ring, while waiting for the bad ball, but credit to India – they didn’t give us much width or many bad balls.

“It was great to get a game here today, we play South Africa here on Friday which is now just a straight shoot-out for the Super 8s, we’ll go away and prepare then be ready for Friday.”