India clinched their fourth ICC U-19 World Cup after taking down Australia by 8 wickets in the final in Mount Maunganui on Saturday. With this win, India became the first team to win four U-19 World Cup titles.
The Australians failed to put up a competitive total on the board after electing to bat first at the toss. Jonathan Merlo top-scored for the Aussies with 76 runs, but none of the other batsmen managed to score a half-century.
Ishan Porel, Shiva Singh, Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Anukul Roy picked up two wickets each and helped India bowl Australia out for just 216 runs.
Prithvi Shaw and Manjot Kalra got India off to a great start. After adding 71 runs for the opening stand, the skipper was bowled out by Will Sutherland for 29 runs. The Mumbai batsman struck four boundaries, but recorded a strike rate of 70.73 during his innings.
The in-form batsman Shubman Gill came in and began striking the ball cleanly right from the word go. Gill and Kalra took the score to 131/2 before the former was undone by Param Uppal.
Once Harvik Desai joined Kalra at the crease, the Indians were in the driver’s seat. Manjot Kalra continued batting in a free-flowing manner and brought up his century towards the end of the match.
In the 39th over, Kalra tucked a delivery off Sutherland to square-leg for a single and became the second Indian to score a century in an U-19 World Cup final. Unmukt Chand scored a century in the 2012 U-19 World Cup.
When one run was needed to win after 38.5 overs, Harvik Desai struck the ball over point to take India to another U-19 World Cup title.
I am really proud of the boys, proud of the effort that they have put in and proud of the support staff as well. I think the effort we have put in over the last 14 months have been sensational.Rahul Dravid
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)