After the months-long of excitement, stellar competition and entertainment, the final of the U19 World Cup took place on Sunday (11th February). India and Australia squared off each other in the summit clash at the Willowmoore Park in Benoni.
Australia won the toss and it was a brave call from them to bat in the overcast conditions. They didn’t have a great start as Raj Limbani yet again picked wicket early on and removed Sam Konstas for an 8-ball duck to jolt the opposition early.
Harry Dixon (42) and Hugh Weilbgen (48) then bailed the team out of trouble and stitched 78 runs for the second wicket. However, they couldn’t continue as they lost their wickets in a span of 5 runs and India was at the top, having reduced Australia to 99/3.
Harjas Singh then stood tall for his team and blasted a vital half-century. He scored 55 runs and was supported well by Ryan Hicks (20). Oliver Peake in the end played a vital hand for his team and made sure that his side ended up with a good total on the board
Peake remained unbeaten at 46 runs whereas Charlie Anderson (13) hit blows in the end as Australia ended with a total of 253/7 in their quota of 50 overs. For India, Raj Limbani was the pick of the bowlers with his figures of 3/38 in 10 overs.
Apart from Raj Limbani, Naman Tiwari also picked two wickets whereas Saumy Pandey and Musheer Khan bagged one wicket each. Their decent efforts with the ball made sure that Australia didn’t go past 300 runs in the big final.
IND U19 vs AUS U19 scorecard, U19 World Cup final highlights: Mahli Beardman and Harjas Singh help Australia crush India in the final by 79 runs
India were off to a torrid start in the chase. Arshin Kulkarni perished for just 3 runs in the third over. After the early blow, Adarsh Singh and Musheer Khan tried to build on the innings and negotiate the tricky phase early on.
The duo added 37 runs for the second wicket as Musheer perished for 22 runs whereas soon after that Adarsh went for 47 runs. India were left tottering at 53/3. Things got even worse for them when skipper Uday Saharan got out for 8 runs.
Australian bowlers then picked wickets in quick succession and put India under immense pressure. The boys in blue were left tottering at 128/8 inside the 38 overs. Murugan Abhishek kept his team in the hunt with his valiant innings.
He scored 42 runs off 46 balls and made sure he take game as deep as possible. he added 46 runs in partnership with Naman Tiwari but perished to diminish the hopes of fans. Australia bundled out India for 174 runs to win the game by 79 runs. Mahli Beardman and Raf MacMillan picked three wickets each whereas Callum Vidler grabbed two wickets. This was Australia’s 4th ICC U19 World Cup title. Since the last one year, they thumped India across three different ICC title finals.
Brief Scores
Australia U19: 253-7 (Harjas Singh 56; Raj Limbani 3/38)
India U19: 174-10 (Adarsh Singh 47; Mahli Beardman 3/15)
