Indian U19 Team thread ....

[ankit1407]

so some how we scrap through, Congratulation to the boys but can do without such tense finishes

[jaydeep]

We r facing New Zealand in the semis on 23rd August ... They scored thrilling last ball victory over West Indies.

New Zealand needed 18 runs in the last over and Indian born Ish Sodhi helped them scoring 22 no in 10 balls ... In last over Ish Sodhi hit 2 fours and a six ... He hit four on last ball.

West Indies Under-19s 237 (50 ov)
New Zealand Under-19s 238/7 (50.0 ov)

[suresh]

Given that our team made heavy weather of a smallish target in the quarterfinal, I expect them to struggle to beat NZ in the SF especially if they bat second.

[PKBasu]

Good to see the team come through very well under pressure. Skipper Unmukt Chand has been a failure in this tournament so far, while Aparajith has been the star alongwith Zol and Harmeet Singh. Let's hope Unmukt starts living up to his potential in the final two matches.

[suresh]

Today is the day for the other India-NZ match -- it is the SF at the U19 World Cup in Townsville, Australia. NZ won the toss and India have been put in to bat. We are 17/0 after 5.5 overs. The Townsville pitch has favoured bowlers and our team has played 3 matches here with our batsmen struggling against WI and Pakistan. So this is a good start as we have not lost any wickets.

[suresh]

[SF] India vs NZ
India

[Over 31.4] 127-1
Aparajith 37*, Chopra 50*, Chand 31

[suresh]

India score 209/9 losing their way towards the end. I think 200 is par for the course and I wanted 225 -- we are somewhere in between the two. There is nothing like a couple of quick wickets at the start to derail the NZ run-chase.

[ssp]

Disappointing final score especially from 127/1. Another 20-25 runs would have been handy.
However, the bowlers are doing a good job so far. NZ 63/4 after 18 overs. We have actually picked up 2 wickets while I've been online! That's a rare thing.
85/4 now. We need another wicket soon. Think I will revert to my normal tactic of going away and then we will do much better.

[yssriram]

It will be India Vs Australia in the final.

The 5th wicket partnership was threatening, as they took it from 63/4 to 119. That was followed by a 36 runs partnership for 6th wicket. Aparajith and Sandeep Singh made these two crucial break throughs.

From 38 runs from 3 overs, it came down to 18 runs from the last 6 balls. Our guys held their nerves to win by 9 runs.

[suresh]

We win a nail biter: NZ score 200/9 off 50 overs and India win by 9 runs. Interestingly, NZ required 18 runs of the last over, exactly the same number that they needed in the QF against the Windies. There was no Ish Sodhi to provide last minute fireworks this time around India used exactly five bowlers to complete their quota of 50 overs and had their best bowler Sandeep Sharma bowling the last over -- he picked up two wickets towards the end.


So the final line us is as follows:

[F] India U19 vs Australia U19 on Sunday, August 26th at 0430 GMT

The venue is Townsville again -- I hope we win the toss!

[PKBasu]

Baba Aparajith has been the star of both the quarter- and semi-final. Clearly a youngster (barely over 18 years old) with an excellent temperament, and emerging allround talent. The other consistent stars have been pacer Sandeep Sharma and left-arm spinner Harmeet Singh (who is the only one who has made a splash in first-class cricket, with a spectacular start in his first 3 matches). Unmukt did better in the SF, but has been a disappointment so far.

[suresh]

Unmukt has been opening the innings and the first 10 overs favour the bowlers at Townsville -- he hasn't done too bady if that is taken into account. The problem is that Unmukt has not converted any of his 30's into 50's. Got to love Aparajith (at least for his name which has commentators tangled up trying to pronounce it) for his all-round game and Harmeet for his aggression and for not being afraid to toss up the ball. The SF saw three super catches -- two by the NZ (Young and Carter(?)) and one by India (Nath). Overall, our fielding was not too bad though Unmukt dropped a sitter in first slip.

[jayakris]

Got to love Aparajith (at least for his name which has commentators tangled up trying to pronounce it).

I love that name too. Made me wonder why I had never seen such an interesting name in India for anybody before. "The unfailing". More correctly, "not letting another person win" (if you split the "parajita" by itself as "para" (others) "jita" (winning)) ... I hope these are not Indian commentators who are struggling with the name. If they are, it points to how poorly we teach our country's people our common linguistic roots. And that comes from someone whose native tongue is from entirely different (Dravidian) linguistic roots. Of course, I hope I didn't parse the name wrongly (those samskRtam experts like Varma may catch me, if I did )

Jay

[prasen9]

Aparajith(o) is undefeated. Jay is win. Parajay is defeat. Baba is father in Bangla. I don't know what Aparajith's mother tongue is.

[suresh]

Jay, As Prasenjit correctly points out, Aparajith means "the undefeated/unconquered one". It wasn't Indian commentators who had trouble but surprisingly there was a Pak commentator (Wasim Akram if I recognised the voice correctly) who was trying to split the initial syllables as Ap-ara... instead of A-pa... Given that he is Chennai born, I suspect that chances are that he is either Tamil or Telugu with a very small chance that he is a Kannadiga.


Edit: We ask him about Aparajith (meaning indomitable), named after the protagonist in a historical Tamil novel, says a DNA report. Turns out that he has a twin brother Indrajith who is a leg-spinning allrounder. His father also claims that Indrajith is more talented while Aparajith is more patient.