U-19 World Cup: Aussies Outplay India In The Final
Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.
View all posts by this Author
By Linus Garg
First publised on 2024-02-13 14:47:39
About the Author
Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.
View all posts by this Author
Once again, it was heartbreak for India in a major ICC final and once again it was the Australians who spoiled the party. Just like in the ICC World Cup in India a couple of months ago when India lost to Australia in the finals, the Indian juniors suffered the same fate in the U-19 World Cup in South Africa. Both times, India were the favourites and unbeaten in the tournament. The only difference was that in the U-19 World Cup, the Aussies too were unbeaten.
The U-19 World Cup final was between two equally well-balanced teams which had enough batting and bowling firepower to pulverize opponents. On the day, the Australians proved that they had planned better and executed their plan efficiently. Going into the match, India had Musheer Khan, Uday Saharan and Sanjay Dhas in excellent form and given the law of averages, Adarsh Singh and Arshin Kulkarni waiting to explode. They also had in-form bowlers in Raj Limbani, Naman Tiwari and Saumy Pandey. While India did well to restrict the Aussies to 253, the batting unit failed in the crucial tie and neither did the law of averages help Kulkarni perform nor Khan, Saharan or Dhas click on the day. As a result, India lost the final by 79 runs.
The World Cup once again served to show India's formidable pipeline of excellent cricketers. Several of these youngsters have it in them to click at the senior level if they keep a level head. They have to keep in mind that in the past, too many of their age-group players had faded away after performing well at this stage. They will also have to consider the fact that with the IPL providing a bigger stage, getting selected for India has become fiercely competitive. Not all these youngsters have the skills needed to be successful in all formats of the game. Hence, they will also have to decide which format to focus on and work to hone their skills accordingly.
