Under-19 World Cup 2008, Malaysia

[Chandan]

India v South Africa, Under-19 World Cup 2008 final, Kuala Lumpur Tense win hands India trophy The Bulletin by Sidharth Monga March 2, 2008 India Under-19s 159 (Srivastava 46, Parnell 2-21, Arnold 2-30) beat South Africa Under-19s 103 for 8 (Hendricks 35, Arghal 2-7, Jadeja 2-25) by 12 runs (D/L method) Scorecard and ball-by-ball details How they were out Tanmay Srivastava top scored with 46 as India were bowled out for 159 © Getty Images With rain reducing the Under-19 World Cup final to a battle of nerves, the Indian bowlers held theirs better than did the South African batsmen to win by a dozen runs, and with that their second U-19 World Cup. Set 99 to chase off 98 balls after the rain break, South Africa never got going and collapsed 13 runs short. Bowled out for 159 following a stifling performance by South Africa's bowlers and fielders, India responded by blowing the South African top order away before rain intervened. Facing India's new-ball bowlers, Ajitesh Argal and Pradeep Sangwan, the South Africans batted like rabbits caught in headlights, showing no intent and failing to get the ball off the square. Argal made short work of Pieter Malan and Riley Rossouw, and a terrible misunderstanding between JJ Smuts and Reeza Hendricks reduced them to 17 for 3 off 8.4 overs before rain halted play. Argal's figures at that time read 4-2-3-2, two of those runs coming in wides. South Africa lost a wicket soon after the resumption and though Hendricks and Wayne Parnell hung around - despite two dropped catches and a missed stumping, they weren't able to score too many boundaries on the damp outfield. Hendricks and Parnell added 50 for the fifth wicket in 57 balls, but Hendricks mis-hit a waist-high full toss from Ravindra Jadeja to fall for 35 off 43. South Africa, at that time, required 44 off five overs. Iqbal Abdulla, the other left-arm spinner, struck immediately to reduce South Africa to 75 for 6, leaving it down to Parnell and Bradley Barnes. The two spinners kept it tight, giving a total of 12 runs in the penultimate two overs, leaving Siddarth Kaul 19 runs to defend in the final over. The first ball was paddled by Barnes past short fine-leg for four, but the next five deliveries yielded only two and the wickets of Parnell and Barnes, kicking off wild celebrations for the Indian side. Parnell fought for his 29 but fell short of partners. With the ball, though, he found a perfect ally in Matthew Arnold. The two, coupled with electric all-round fielding, had restricted India. South Africa's bowlers offered few loose deliveries, and even those had to clear the lively infielders. Frustrated, Virat Kohli and Tanmay Srivastava tried to go over the top, but both of them found Sybrand Engelbrecht, who pulled off screamers to break the back of India's middle order. Every time the ball went towards Engelbrecht, he came up with something spectacular, casting doubt in the minds of the batsmen. One of those resulted in the run-out of Iqbal Abdulla. It was Srivastava who prevented a complete disaster as Parnell and Arnold found the Indian top order a notch below their class, dismissing the openers for next to nothing. After Parnell had won the toss and bravely put India in, it was just as well that the Indian openers, Taruwar Kohli and Shreevats Goswami, were dismissed cheaply, ending their painful existence at the wicket. Taruwar repeated his semi-final dismissal as he top-edged a lame pull from wide outside off stump. Goswami edged and prodded his way to 6 off 25 balls, showing his discomfort against anything not full, and then nicked Arnold to second slip, leaving India at 27 for 2 in the 10th over. Parnell and Arnold made a dangerous combination, left-arm in-swing being Parnell's main weapon, and raw pace Arnold's. For South Africa, captain Wayne Parnell shone with the ball while Sybrand Engelbrecht was a livewire in the field © Getty Images Parnell mixed the bouncers well with the swing, while Arnold bowled the fastest spell of the tournament, troubling the left-handers from round the stumps. Srivastava and Virat put India on the comeback track with a 47-run third-wicket partnership: Srivastava batted fluently, and Virat solidly. But just as Virat started to cut loose, hitting the medium-pace of Malan for a majestic six over extra cover, Engelbrecht came up with that blinder. Srivastava, meanwhile, was playing a different game. The first ball he faced he punched through point for two. The early part of his innings was streaky as he was tested by Arnold, who got the ball to hold the line from round the stumps, and Srivastava almost played on when he was on 6. But he settled down soon to play a fine innings. Especially strong through point, he drove the fast bowlers with an open face for two boundaries, and lofted the medium-pace of Roy Adams for a four and a six, who he had picked as the weak link as soon as he came on in the 14th over. Srivatsava, too, fell to Engelbrecht's brilliance at point for 46 off 74 balls. Not that Engelbrecht was the only spectacular fielder; he had Rossouw at cover to make scoring difficult through the off side. Barnes, the wicketkeeper, continued an impressive World Cup as he showed a tremendous mix of great work behind the stumps and presence of mind to run Saurabh Tiwary out after he and Manish Pandey had threatened to build a fightback. Tiwary, batting with Srivastava as his runner, missed a yorker from offspinner Yaseen Vallie, which Barnes collected cleanly and turned towards square leg to find Srivastava backing up, and whipped the bails off. That ended a 37-run fifth-wicket partnership. Barnes followed it up with two more difficult catches to finish the Indian tail off. But after putting up a superb show for more than half the duration of the match, South Africa failed to bring their best game at a time when men are made out of boys. -------------------------------------------- So this way India wins the Youth WC after 8 years. Players to stand out have been Tanmay Srivastav, Virat Kohli, Pacemen Argal and Sangwan and the keeper Goswami. Batsman Manish Pandey and Tiwari also imressed in patches.

[MundaPakistani]

Congrats to India. They were the best team in competition and considering what happened in 06 and what had happened afterwards they fully deserved to win the cup.

[Mr. Wicket]

Couple of strange omissions... not sure what the age rule is for the side (as the CI profiles show a handful of players like Jadeja, Argal and Kohli to be over 19 years already), but both Dhawal Kulkarni and Omkar Gurav have been left out. Gurav'd be the oldest member of the side, so maybe he's past the age limit - but Dhawal's younger than Virat Kohli and he's been doing very well on the Bombay club circuit - IMO VERY unlucky not to be considered on this tour and the stupidest mistake by the youth selectors who really must have a lot of wool over their eyes to leave him out here (as he's younger than Kohli who's in the side, ergo definitely eligible). Bombay selectors also missed the boat on this guy btw... sh*tloads of injuries to the bowlers this season - Verma, Agarkar, Salvi, Malvi, Waingarkar and Hazare were all injured and they didn't give him a go. He did get to play recently in the England Lions/MCA warmup a few days ago because the best Bombay players were either with the Duleep side, with the India national or U19 side (or in Amol's case left out of the Duleeps because the selectors are f-wits) - think it was 15 a side, 11 bowling/11 batting (so won't show on his fc record), and ran through a stacked England batting lineup with 5/33. Got Carberry, Joyce, Trott (so two int'l players already), plus Adil Rashid (solid all rounder) and Liam Plunkett (also not a shabby bat). Oh, and he did very well in the one U19 test he played on the New Zealand tour I mentioned above... bowled first change at Dunedin, with one chap called Ishant Sharma taking the new ball - you might have heard of him, I reckon, he's been bowling alright in Australia... Dhawal basically outbowled Ishant right through. 3/33 in the first innings (compared to Ishant's 1/35 - in fact Kulkarni was the best bowler of that first innings) and got another 2/42 in the second (while Ishant went for 103 and took 2 wickets) - so he's definitely a good talent. The U19 and Bombay selectors have both treated him fairly shabbily - although with the Bombay lineup being so unsettled, I'm hoping that he features a bit in the next season's f/c lineup. An attack led by Dhawal Kulkarni and Sangwan could be rather fun to watch.

Bump. Dhawal just played his first f/c game for Bombay, finished with a 5-for in the first innings and a 4-for in the second. Watch this name.

[Sachinism]

Yeh it was good to see him among the wickets, he bowled pretty well in the IPL Also Tanmay Srivastava scored a ton (154)

[graphic23]

Yeh it was good to see him among the wickets, he bowled pretty well in the IPL Also Tanmay Srivastava scored a ton (154)

That kid was also very good in the WC. I think he is definitely someone to watch out for.