India Pak encounter at Christchurch - Shubman Gill century; Ishant Porel 4/ .. ??

This morning as I watched the TV relay, it was a comedy of errors – 49.5 Muhammad Musa to Porel, 1 run – that was very crucial – penultimate ball – No.11 – why that it should be -  because at the other end was Shubman Gill stranded at 99* - it was a simple run out chance ..  Ishan Chandranath Porel heaved a sigh of relief (at the time of posting this, he has done wonders with the ball reducing Pak to 32/4 – all the 4 wickets to Ishan !)

So – it was 49.6 -  Muhammad Musa to Shubman Gill,  hits high, the nervous Pak gets under it makes a mess, drop – gill runs 2, completes century – and that was a no ball, a free-hit.  Off the last - 1 run, a brilliant catch at long-off by Hassan Khan. Hassan runs back and turns around to snaffle a stunningly-judged catch in front of the boundary, anyway last ball and that too a free-hit. 

Indian youngsters have done very well ~ that is 2^nd Semis of  ICC Under-19 World Cup at Christchurch, India setting a target of 273.

A day or so earlier, team mates , Nagarkoti and Abhishek Sharma were having fun at Shubman Gill's expense, even as his name came up for bidding. Gill's was the first among members of the India Under-19 team at the auction table. It was well past 11pm in Christchurch, the time they've all generally been going to bed every day. But this was different. Gill finally gave in and switched on the live stream. "When I finally saw online, my bid was at INR 1.2 crore," Gill says with a sheepish smile. His first reaction was: "I'm in the IPL." The price didn't matter, so he switched it off. Ten minutes after the hammer went down, Gill received a call from his mother. He had just been sold for INR 1.8 crore (USD 281,000 approx).

Today it was another  India-Pakistan contest without the hype at Hagley Oval in Christchurch. Yet a high voltage match.  Rahul Dravid, India's coach, who was at the center of the fiercest on-field battles involving both countries, believes the experience will make the players aware of the stakes, without being overly worried about the result.

The winner, in all probability India would meat Australia who stopped the dream run of Afghans - Australia 182 for 4 (Edwards 72, Uppal 33*) beat Afghanistan 181 (Ikram 80, Merlo 4-24) by six wickets.  Afghanistan's decision to bat first backfired, as they were bowled out for 181 with medium pacer Jonathan Merlo picking four wickets. With their only hope of causing a stir in the Australian camp hinging on their mystery spinners, they unleashed Mujeeb Zadran, who on Sunday bagged an IPL contract worth USD 625,000, with the new ball. This move was met with a spectacular counter-attack from opener Jack Edwards, who smashed him for 14 in the eighth over on his way to a 40-ball half-century.

Earlier Afghanistan had  sprung a surprise on New Zealand by handing them a massive 202-run drubbing in Christchurch to storm into the semi-finals of Under-19 World Cup. Afghanistan not only scored 309 after opting to bat, they then routed New Zealand in under 30 overs to register their third win in four matches of the tournament and set up a semi-final clash against Australia.

Of the many little superstars, there is Nagarkoti who hits 146 kmph - "Andar se thoda nervous tha mai (I was a little nervous from within)," Nagarkoti said as he traced the events leading into his eventual bid of INR 3.2 crore (USD 500,000 approx) by Kolkata Knight Riders.  India under-19 star Manjot Kalra was bought by Delhi Daredevils for a base price of Rs 20 Lakh.  In the allorunder's bracket, India Under-19 Shivam Mavi who too works out lively pace went for Rs 3 crore to Kolkata Knight Riders while his teammate Abhishek Sharma was snared by Delhi Daredevils for Rs 55 Lakh.

Afghanistan spinner Mujeeb Zadran fetched a hefty pay-check of Rs 4 crore from Kings XI Punjab, thus becoming the third Afghan player to be bought by an IPL franchise after Rashid Khan (Rs 9 crore to SRH), Mohammad Nabi (Rs 1 crore to SRH).

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

30^th Jan 2018.