National Cricket Academy (NCA) chief VVS Laxman praised the young Indian team for clinching their record fifth U19 World Cup title at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua. He called it a special win and also talked about how the side overcame the challenges.
Indian colts thumped England by four wickets in the final to clinch the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2022. Asked to bowl first, Ravi Kumar gave his team a perfect start as he took two wickets in quick succession of time to leave the opposition tumbling at 18/2. Raj Bawa then further jolted England and reduced them to 61/6.
The pace bowling duo of Raj Bawa (5/31) and Ravi Kumar (4/34) took nine wickets between them as India bundled out England for just 189 runs.
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Chasing the target, even though India kept losing wickets at regular intervals but a half-century from vice-captain Shaik Rasheed (50), Raj Bawa’s 35 and Nishant Sindhu’s unbeaten 50 runs kept them in the game.
With 7 runs needed, Dinesh Bana smashed two consecutive sixes to finish the game for his side and clinch yet another U19 Cricket World Cup for his side.
Speaking after the match, VVS Laxman lauded the selection committee. He said that it was a new group and was challenging for them to identify the group. He also praised the coaching staff for bringing the group together and remarked that preparation for this World Cup was fantastic.
"Firstly huge congratulations to the selection committee. It was a new selection committee and quite challenging for them to identify this group. After that, the coaching staff with Hrishikesh as the head coach, Sai Raj, Munish, and all the support staff, the way they got this group together, they worked really hard, won the Asia Cup and the preparation for this World Cup was fantastic,” VVS Laxman said.
Laxman said that despite COVID-19 wrecking havoc inside the camp, the kind of resilience and positive attitude the boys showed was exemplary. He added that due to coronavirus, the team didn’t get to play any tournament and that’s why this win was special for them.
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"But in the middle of this tournament, we all know what happened to the boys. To test positive (for Covid) but show the kind of resilience and positive attitude was exemplary. I think the BCCI has to be complemented.
“The number of matches and tournaments each age group level gets to play, whether U16, U19 or U23... unfortunately due to Covid they didn't get to play any tournaments and that's why I think this tournament win is very special,” he said.
VVS Laxman further said that it’s just the start of the journey for the U19 players and it’s great to see how they’ve evolved over the last couple of months.
"It's important but this is just a learning process and just the start of their journey. Everyone in this group understands that. This is about development as players and as a person and it's great to see how they've developed and evolved over the last couple of months but this is just the start of their journey as a cricketer,” he said.
(NDTV Sports inputs)
