When Did India Secured Third U-19 World Cup Title?
On this day exactly ten years back, India defeated Australia to become just the second side in history to claim the Under-19 World Cup three times. Here in this article, we talk about how India secured their third U-19 World Cup in detail.
Mohammad Kaif and Virat Kohli led India to their first two victories in 2000 and 2008. And in 2012, Unmukt Chand became the third to join the elite list. He was sensational during the day of the final match which helped India beat the then-defending champions Australia by six wickets on August 26, 2012.
After facing a defeat in their first league match against West Indies, the young boys in blue quickly rebounded with victories over Zimbabwe and Papua New Guinea. India defeated its bitter foe Pakistan by one wicket in the quarterfinals before defeating New Zealand by nine runs in the semifinals.
India Vs Australia ICC U-19 World Cup 2012 final Match Highlights
India have to face the mighty Australia in the final and after winning the toss, the Indian skipper opted to bowl.
Sandeep Sharma provided India a dream start after removing both their opening batters under 10. The men in yellow further slipped to 38/4 before their skipper William Bosisto managed to rescue his team from low-score humiliation.
Bosisto played a super knock of 87 and a steady show by Travis Head (37) and Ashton Turner (43) Australia were able to post 225 on the board.
India too faced a dreary start after losing their opener Prasant Chopra on the second ball of the match, but it the skipper Unmukt Chand and Baba Aparajith that steadied their board and added 73 for the second wicket before Aparajith walked back to pavilion.
Vijay Zol and Hanuma Vihari abruptly left the game as India stumbled to 97/4 from a 75/2 position.
Following that, the skipper Chand took the whole charge with Smit Patel also played a confident 62 off of 84, which served as the impetus for Chand to impose his will at the other end.
Both batter made sure to finish the game as early as possibly as India won the game with 14 balls to spare. The skipper Unmukt Chand was later honoured with award of player of the match for his unbeaten 111 runs knock, which includes seven fours and six maximums led India to their third U-19 World Cup title.
Six years later, India made history by becoming the first team to win the Under-19 World Cup a record four times, led by Prithvi Shaw as captain and Rahul Dravid as coach.
While, India claimed their fifth U-19 World Cup title early this year under Yash Dhull and coach Hrishikesh Kanitkar.
