Wishing Team India to win ICC WC U19 easily today

At the time of posting this @ 10 pm on 5.2.2022, a player by name - James John Grimwood Sales remained unbeaten at    Northsound – what a name, though his partner  - James Edward Kenneth Rew made waves, missing a well deserved ton by just 5 runs.  England started poorly ¼, 2/18, 3/37, 4/47, 5/47, 6/61, 7/91 – then a partnership taking them 50 184 and eventually all out for 189.   

Indian bowling was fantastic – Rajendra Singh RaviKumar finished with figures of 9-1-34-4, while Raj Angad Bawa excelled more with 9.5-1-35-5.  Now will Team India score 190 and lift the Cup is to be seen ! – wishing Team India does that in style and without trouble.  It is ICC U19 World Cup finals. 

It is at Northsound, West Indies, Antigua to be precise.  Antigua  also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the native population, is an island in the Lesser Antilles. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua and Barbuda became an independent state within the Commonwealth of Nations on 1 November 1981. Antigua means "ancient" in Spanish after an icon in Seville Cathedral, Waladli  comes from the indigenous inhabitants and means approximately "our own’. 

Today is a big day – the finals of U19 World Cup.  In the Semi-finals, against a tough opponent – Australia, a 27-run last over  propelled India to a mammoth 290 for 5, which didn't look even remotely possible the way India had started. They were 18 for 1 after eight overs and 38 for 2 after 13. But Dhull and then Rasheed changed it completely with their 204-run stand for the third wicket. The final flourish was a cherry on the top.   For the fourth edition in a row, India are in an U-19 World Cup final. Yash Dhull's team flattened Australia to complete a fifth straight comprehensive win, with the captain leading from the front with 110. He was assisted by his vice-captain Shaik Rasheed (94), and their 204-run partnership helped India recover from 37 for 2 to an eventual total of 290 for 5.  Dinesh Bana played some really big shots.

                  Transition from U19 is tough .. .. in a team that had Cheteshwar Pujara, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Piyush Chawla, Yo Mahesh, the now forgotten,  left-hand middle-order batsman, Ravikant Shukla led India to the final of the Under-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka in 2006.  

The inaugural event was titled the McDonald's Bicentennial Youth World Cup, and was held in 1988 as part of the Australian Bicentenary celebrations. It took place in South Australia and Victoria. Teams from the seven Test-playing nations, as well as an ICC Associates XI, competed in a round-robin format. Australia lost only one match, their final round-robin game against Pakistan by which time they had qualified for the semis. They went on to beat Pakistan by five wickets in the final. 

                India have won the World Cup on a record four occasions,  while Australia have won three times, Pakistan twice, and Bangladesh, England, South Africa and the West Indies once each. Two other teams New Zealand and Sri Lanka have made it to tournament finals. Bangladesh are the current defending champion.  Last time, the tourney was played at Potchefstroom in 2020, Bangladesh beat India by 3 wickets in D/L method.  

Messages from the players' senior counterparts have lifted the mood of both camps ahead of Saturday's Under-19 World Cup final. Virat Kohli interacted with India's players, while a host of big names - "Joe Root, Eoin Morgan, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Saqib Mahmood, quite a few," according to England captain Tom Prest - did their best to gee up England's Under-19s.  The former England offspinner Graeme Swann, who was part of the side that won the Under-19 World Cup in 1998, is a member of the commentary team now. He also had some words of advice for the England players.  Yash Dhull, the India captain, said Kohli - who had captained the Under-19s to the World Cup title in 2008 - had passed on advice on how to handle the big day. "He gave us his best wishes as the team is doing well," Dhull said. "So his words will give us confidence. When a senior player speaks with the team, the team morale gets a boost. He spoke to us about some basic things such as how to play normal cricket, how to stick to our game plan etc. It was good to interact with him." 

England captain Tom Prest won an important toss and elected to bat against India in the final of the U-19 World Cup on Saturday. Both India and England are playing an unchanged side in the title clash at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium. The two finalists set up the summit showdown without losing a match. After a tense finish in the semifinal against Afghanistan, England will be more than keen to end their title drought of the last 24 years.  Indian team for the day reads : Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Harnoor Singh, Shaik Rasheed, Yash Dhull(c), Nishant Sindhu, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Dinesh Bana(w), Kaushal Tambe, Raj Bawa, Vicky Ostwal, Ravi Kumar. 

The victory was first tasted in Jan 2000 when India beat Srilanka by 6 wickets.  Team India was captained by Mohd Kaif, and had Yuvraj Singh,  Reetinder Sodhi, Ajay Ratra and Venugopala Rao among others.  In 2008, it was repeated by the mercurial  Virat Kohli at Kualalumpur beating South Africa.  Kohli had Taruvar Kohli, Sourab Tiwary, Manish Pandey and Ravindra Jadeja.  In Townsville in 2012,  Team India again won by 6 wickets.  This time led by Unkukht Chand, there were Hanuma Vihari, Vijay Zol, Baba Aparajit, Sandeep Sharma among others.  In 2018 at Mount Maunganuj,  India beat Australia – Prithvi Shaw was the Captain, the other prominent players included Shubman Gill, Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Shivam Mavi. 

Wishing Team India success and hope India chases 190 easily and wins the ICC U19 World Cup 2022

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

5.2.2022 @ 2200 hrs.