India win junior World Cup

Chris Dhambarage reporting

India came from behind with a magnificent performance to beat the giant killers South Africa by 12 runs on the Duckworth and Lewis scoring method in the International Cricket Council Under 19 World Cup final encounter worked off under lights at the Kinrara Oval in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia yesterday.

India the champions of 2000 and the runners up in 2006 scored 159 runs and then restricted South Africa to 103 for 8 after the final was reduced to a 25 overs following a heavy downpour. A heavy shower halted the game in the ninth over with South Africa struggling at 17 for 3.

The match resumed after a long stoppage with South Africa needing 116 runs to win from 25 overs according to the Duckworth and Lewis scoring method. But they just could not maintain the momentum and ended up 12 runs short of their revised target at the end.

South Africa lost a couple of early wickets and struggled to come out on top of the Indian attack with Argal, Jadeja and Kaul capturing two wickets each.

Earlier two superb spells of fast bowling from Wayne Parnell and Matthew Arnold helped South Africa to bowl out India for 159 runs after they had been put into bat first.

Parnell, who has a first-class hat-trick to his name and is playing his second Under 19 World Cup mixed the bouncers well with the swing, while Arnold bowled the fastest spell of the tournament, troubling the Indian batsmen throughout the innings.

In fact India lost both openers Kholi and Goswami by the 10th over of the innings and were under tremendous pressure from there onwards.

However middle order batsmen Srivastava and Virat Kholi repaired the early damage with a useful third wicket partnership of 47 runs. Srivastava hit a top score of 46 from 74 deliveries with the help of four boundaries.

Even then the South Africans picked up wickets at regular intervals and never allowed the Indians to build a substantial partnership.

Tiwary and Pandey both made good starts but never looked like getting on top of the South African attack.

Parell and Arnold captured two wickets each and had the situation very much under control with Roy Adams providing the back up support. India of course slumped to 120 for 5 by the 35th over and lost their last five wickets for the addition of just 39 runs.

INDIA UNDER 19 
T. Kohli c P. Malan b W. Parnell 		  1
S. Goswami c R. Hendricks b M. Arnold 		  6
T. Srivastava c S. Engelbrecht b R. Adams 	 46
V. Kohli c S. Engelbrecht b P. Malan 		 19
S. Tiwary run out 				 20
M. Pandey c B. Barnes b M. Arnold 		 20
R. Jadeja c J. Vandiar b Y. Vallie 		 11
Abdullah Iqbal run out 				  9
P. Sangwan c B. Barnes b R. Adams 		 13
S. Kaul not out 				  1
A. Argal c B. Barnes b W. Parnell 		  1
Extras (Lb:2 Wd:10) 				 12
TOTAL all out in 45.4 overs 			159
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-3, 2-27, 3-74, 4-83, 5-120, 
6-122, 7-137, 8-150, 9-158
BOWLING: W. Parnell 7.4-2-21-2, M. Arnold 10-0-30-2, 
P. Malan 9-1-23-1, R. Adams 8-0-38-2, Y. Vallie 9-0-33-2,
S. Engelbrecht 2-0-12-0.

   SOUTH AFRICA UNDER19 
P. Malan c S. Goswami b A. Argal 		  2
J. Smuts run out 				  5
R. Rossouw c R. Jadeja b A. Argal 		  0
R. Hendricks c S. Goswami b R. Jadeja 		 35
J. Vandiar c S. Goswami b R. Jadeja 		  3
W. Parnell c Pandey b S. Kaul 			 29 
R. Adams lbw b Abdullah Iqbal 			  1
B. Barnes b S. Kaul 				 19
M. Arnold not out 				  1 
Extras (Lb:5 Wd:3) 				  8
TOTAL for 8 wickets in 25 overs 		103
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-5, 2-6, 3-11, 4-22, 5-72, 
6-75, 7-102, 8-103
BOWLING: P. Sangwan 5-2-14-0, A. Argal 5-2-7-2, 
R. Jadeja 5-0-25-2, S. Kaul 5-0-26-2, Abdullah Iqbal 5-0-26-1,