Benoni (South Africa), 11 Feb: A fresh chapter was added to the script of Australia’s domination over India in the ICC World Cup finals when they bagged the Under-19 title with a 79-run victory here on Sunday.
\nBatting by choice, the Aussies posted a healthy 253 for seven as India were forced to mount the highest chase in a youth World Cup summit clash.
\nBut Uday Saharan’s side floundered in the final step to glory, stumbling to 174 all out as the relentless Aussie bowlers led by the furious Mahli Beardman (3\/15) and the crafty off-spinner Raf MacMillan (3\/43) did not give them any breathing space.
\nThis was Australia’s fourth U19 title and first since 2010 and, in a way, they also washed away the pain of losing to India in two title matches in 2012 and 2018.
\nMany would view this result as a continuation of Australia’s win over India in the senior World Cup last year at Ahmedabad.
\nPacer Callum Vidler started Australia’s victory march by packing off Indian opener Arshin Kulkarni, inducing an edge to stumper Ryan Hicks.
\nFrom that point, India simply failed to stitch together any meaningful partnerships as frontline batters including skipper Saharan (8), Musheer Khan, who received a reprieve on zero, and Sachin Dhas (9) departed without making any real contributions.
\nBeardman broke through the defence of Musheer (22) with a delivery that kept a tad low, while the pacer tempted Saharan, the tournament’s highest run-getter, with a slightly wide delivery on off-stump, but his slash ended in the hands of Hugh Weibgen at point.
\nBeardman later added the wicket of opener Adarsh Singh, who was India’s highest scorer on the day with a 77-ball 47, to bulldoze the Indian batting unit with pace and bounce.
\nIf the Indian batters could not cope with the hostility of Beardman, a disciple of legendary Dennis Lillee, they could not counter the guile of MacMillan, Australia’s lone spinner this day.
\nMacMillan was introduced in the 20th over and he dismissed Dhas off his first ball, a regulation catch to Hicks behind the stumps.
\nIndia were reduced to 68 for four then, and ouster of the free-flowing Dhas was a body blow to their chances.
\nThe strapping offie later also bagged the wickets of Aravelly Avanish and Raj Limbani, preventing any late Indian punch back.
\nMurugan Abhishek (42, 45b) tried gamely in the company of Naman Tiwari adding 46 runs for the ninth wicket, highest of the innings, but the task proved beyond his reach.
\nHowever, the Australian batters too can claim the right amount of credit for this triumph.
\nNo one really made a tall score but they fired collectively around Harjas Singh (55, 64b, 3×4, 3×6) to give the Antipodeans a competitive total to defend amidst strikes by Indian pacers Limbani (3\/38) and Tiwari (2\/63).
\nLimbani, who worked up a fair clip from the pitch, bowled opener Sam Konstas with a lovely in-coming delivery to deny the Aussies a quick start as they have done often in this tournament.
\nBut the Australians found stability through Harry Dixon (42, 56 balls) and skipper Weibgen (48, 66 balls).
\nDixon, in fact, started off in a blazing fashion, hammering left-arm pacer Tiwari (2\/63) for 4, 6, 4 in the second over, but he settled into a more sedate rhythm in the company of Weibgen.
\nThe hallmark of their second-wicket alliance of 78 runs in 18.1 overs, was the way they negated the Indian spinners, a massive restrictive force throughout this showpiece.
\nThere were no big hits but Dixon and Weibgen managed to push the scoreboard forward with those singles and twos.
\nJust as the stand was coasting along, Saharan threw the ball to Tiwari, who was withdrawn after an expensive first spell.
\nTiwari answered his leader’s call in the perfect fashion getting rid of a set Weibgen, whose drive away from the body nestled in the hands of Musheer at point.
\nThe left-arm quick dismissed Dixon two overs later to bring India back into the game. The Aussies were 99 for three then. But Harjas and Ryan Hicks (20) added 66 runs in 11.2 overs for the fourth wicket to keep their team afloat.
\nHarjas struggled early on, but a six and a four in successive balls off off-spinner Priyanshu Moliya gave him the much-needed confidence.
\nThe left-hander was a transformed player from that point and nullified the off-breaks of Abhishek with a series of sweeps and slog-sweeps, and two of them landed deep inside the stands for maximums.
\nHarjas completed his first fifty of the tournament with a four off Tiwari to long-off but failed to stay longer as another attempt to sweep left-arm spinner Saumey Pandey saw him getting adjudged leg-before.
\nBut Oliver Peake (46 not out off 43 balls) and Charlie Anderson (13) added precious 34 runs for the seventh-wicket that pushed Aussies to a sufficient total. (PTI)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Benoni (South Africa), 11 Feb: A fresh chapter was added to the script of Australia’s domination over India in the ICC World Cup finals when they bagged the Under-19 title with a 79-run victory here on Sunday. Batting by choice, the Aussies posted a healthy 253 for seven as India were forced to mount the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-234570","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234570\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}