And they have done it again! For the fourth  time, the Indian U19 team have won the World Cup in New Zealand after comprehensively beating Australia in the final. After winning the toss and batting first, Australia started very well, racing to 32 runs from 5.1 overs.

Max Bryant was then taken out by Ishan Porel for 14. The other opener, Jack Edwards, was the next to go with 28 from 29 balls. Soon after, captain Jason Sangha was gone for 13 as Australia were in a spot of bother at 59 for 3 after 11.4 overs.

However, a good partnership between Jonathan Merlo and Param Uppal took Australia’s score to 134 after 28.4 overs, before the latter fell for 34 off Anukul Roy’s bowling. Nathan McSweeney played a small cameo of 29 balls, where he scored 23 runs before losing his wicket.

Will Sutherland was next to go after scoring only 5 runs. Jonathan Merlo also perished next, after which Australia just collapsed, losing their last 6 wickets for only 33 runs. The Aussies could conjure only 216 runs from 47.2 overs.

The Indian bowlers did really well as each one of them did their fair share. Apart from Abhishek Sharma, every other tried bowler got at least a wicket. Ishan Porel, Shiva Singh, Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Anukul Roy took 2 wickets each, with Shivam Mavi taking a wicket himself.

In response, Prithvi Shaw’s men started positively. The openers Shaw and Manjot Kalra shared a 71 runs partnership before the captain bit the dust for 29 runs. Shubham Gill came in next and steered the ship along with Kalra.

Gill also fell after playing 30 balls, making 31 runs in the process. No more wickets fell after that as Harvik Desai and Kalra finished the game, scoring 47* and 101 runs*, respectively.

Will Sutherland and Param Uppal were the only ones who could take a wicket each.

In the end, India won the U19 World Cup for the 4^th time. Manjit Kalra was adjudged as the man of the match.

Scores:

Australia U19 – 216-all out after 47.2 overs
India U19 – 220/2 after 38.5 overs