Under-19 World Cup: India beat Australia by 6 wickets
The Indian boys did it again. Beating the defending champions Australia, India bagged the 2012 Under-19 Cricket World Cup in Townsville, Australia.
It was literally a skipper's day out there as Indian captain, Unmukt Chand, scored a century to take India to their third under-19 title.
Earlier, India frittered away the early advantage as defending champions Australia recovered from a shaky start to post a competitive 225 for 8 in the final of the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup here on Sunday.
Electing to field after winning the toss amid overcast conditions, the Indians had the Aussies on the mat at 38 for 4 before host skipper William Bosisto (87 not out) rebuilt the innings with the help of some notable contributions down the order.
Both teams named the same XIs that had got them through the knockouts. While Australia, aiming for a fourth title, entered the final undefeated, India had lost one game in the first group stage to the West Indies.
Sandeep Sharma was the pick of the bowlers for India, grabbing four wickets in his 10 overs that conceded 54 runs and included a couple of maidens.
In conditions that have favoured bowlers all through the tournament, two-time winners India could not have asked for a better start as Sharma struck in his very first over.
He removed both the openers - Cameron Bancroft (2) and Jimmy Peirson (0) - in his first spell itself. The Oz team was looking down the barrel as a couple of more wickets fell in quick succession.
However, Bosisto took charge of the proceedings and gradually steadied the ship sharing a 65-run fifth wicket stand with Travis Head (37) to start with.
But the Indians managed to get back when Harmeet Singh and Baba Aparajith combined to run out Head after a mix-up between the two batsmen.
Head took off for a single from the non-strikers end, but was sent back by Bosisto. Harmeet moved quickly to pick up the ball and threw it to Aparajith, who ran out Head.
Head's 56-ball knock included five fours.
The Indians, however, let slip the advantage once again as Bosisto found another able partner in Ashton Turner (43). Together the duo accelerated the scoring rate and put on 93 runs for the sixth wicket.
Turner was the more aggressive of the two batsmen, sending down three boundaries and a six during his 50-ball knock before becoming Sharma's third victim of the match.
The Aussie score read 196 for six at that stage and it wasn't long before the Indians managed to send the tail back to the pavillion.
But Bosisto held fort at one end and his 120-ball patient innings included six boundaries.
More importantly, the skipper managed to take his team past the 200-mark, which gave the Aussies the crucial psychological edge as most of the games so far have been low-scoring thrillers.
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