In Stats: Building Partnerships, the Washington-Sarfaraz Way
A look at how Sarfaraz Khan & Washington Sundar’s 110-run partnership was a lesson straight out of Virat Kohli’s book
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India Under-19: 268/9(Sarfaraz: 74, Washington: 62, Anders: 3/35) beat
Ireland Under-19: 189(McClintock: 58, Tucker: 57, Batham: 3/15)
by 79 runs
India defeated Ireland by 79 runs at the Sher e Bangla National Stadium to get their ICC Under-19 World Cup campaign off to a victorious note. Thanks mostly to two players - Sarfaraz Khan and Washington Sundar.
Coming in on a hot run with 10 consecutive wins, India were favourites heading into the match, and that by itself puts a certain degree of pressure on the players. But after being inserted on a pitch that had a bit of green and losing four wickets with just 55 runs on the board, that pressure must have multiplied by several notches.
In that situation, the need of the hour was for players to bide their time in the middle and slowly wrest back control of the match. And the 18-year old Sarfaraz and 16-year old Sundar did just that, with the latter playing the perfect second fiddle in their 110-run association.
In the first six overs after they got together, they were cautious – and rightly so – adding only 19 runs, during which period they batted out as many as 21 dot deliveries. However, once they had taken stock of the conditions and what the bowlers had to dish out, they stepped on the accelerator. Over the next 35 balls they added 40 runs and stepped on the gas even more in the final six overs scoring at nearly nine runs an over.
What they did very well after that initial period of consolidation was to ensure the scoreboard was ticking all the time.
The boundaries at the Shere Bangla National Stadium are fairly big and that presented the opportunity for batsmen to put pressure on the fielders by running the first run hard. Sarfaraz, especially, put plenty of pressure on the Irish fielders and converted several opportunities to convert a single to a risky second run. That not only showed good intent, but it also displayed good understanding of the match situation and conditions – similar in many ways to what Virat Kohli did against Australia at Adelaide on Tuesday.
In a country like India, one can find several players with immense talent. But talent alone can take you only that far.
For players to go the distance and play for their country, and do well at the international level, they need something special – an X Factor. And Sarfaraz and Sundar, who displayed maturity beyond their age on Thursday, seem to have what it takes to go on to play at the highest level.