Chand Leads Team To World Cup Triumph

Chand Leads Team To World Cup Triumph

The Indian team celebrate their six-wicket win over Australia.

©ICC/Ian Hitchcock. Picture Supplied by Getty Images

India Under-19s 227-4 (Chand 111no) beat
Australia Under-19s (Bosisto 87no) by 6 wickets
Under-19 World Cup Final, Townsville
Scorecard

Indian captain Unmukt Chand led his side to a convincing six-wicket win over Australia in the final of the Under-19 World Cup in Queensland. The victory completed a remarkable turnaround for a side that had been written off in some quarters following their defeat to the West Indies in their opening match.

Chand benefited from being dropped twice in the thirties to complete only the third ever century in an Under-19 World Cup final. Australian captain Will Bosisto was left to reflect on these missed chances after the match.

He said, “It is really disappointing. Maybe we didn’t help ourselves out with a few dropped catches and things like that but that is cricket. We obviously came here to win and that didn’t happen. But I am proud of the boys and the way we went about it. I think we can be really satisfied with how we have gone (in this tournament).”

The Australia captain also praised Chand and his side, adding, “It would have been nice to finish on a winning note, obviously, but India is a great side, I think [they] played better than us on the day and it deserved to win. Getting an early wicket, we thought that put us right in the contest. Unmukt's innings was just a freak innings and sometimes you are going to get that in cricket against such talented opposition.”

Chand’s innings was all the more special as it helped his side recover from a potential middle-order wobble that had seen them slip from 75 for one to 97 for four. He added an unbroken 130 for the fifth-wicket with wicket-keeper Smit Patel (62 off 84 balls), however, and India won with 14 balls to spare.

Australia had lost early wickets in their innings after being asked to bat as Sandeep Sharma (four for 54) removed both openers in his first two overs and Ravikant Singh and Baba Aparajith each chipped in with a wicket. Bosisto led the home side’s fightback and added 65 with Travis Head (37 off 56 balls) for the fifth-wicket and 93 with Aston Turner (43 off 50) for the sixth-wicket to haul his side up to 225 for eight. Ultimately, though, the day would belong to Chand and India.

© Cricket World 2012