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India win U-19 World Cup

August 26, 2012

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Townsville (Australia), August 26: Unmukt Chand led from the front with a magnificent hundred as India Under-19 lifted their third World Cup title after beating formidable defending champions Australia by six wickets in the final on Sunday.

Courtesy a magnificent unbeaten 111 by Unmukt and his unbroken partnership of 130 runs with wicketkeeper Smit Patel, India overhauled a competitive target of 226 on a bouncy strip with 14 balls to spare.

It was one of the best centuries one could have witnessed at the junior-level as Unmukt hit seven fours and as many as six sixes during his 130-ball knock.

He completed his century with a six over extra-cover off Alex Gregory but the celebrations were muted. The skipper knew that the job was only half done.

Once Smit, who hit an effective 62, slog-swept off-spinner Ashton Turner towards deep mid-wicket for a four a number of Indian supporters rushed to the ground along to celebrate with the team.

Though four wickets were lost in the chase, it never looked like an uphill task for the Indians, who were subdued in the middle overs but accelerated towards the end to get to the target with ease.

After Prashant Chopra was out chasing a delivery down leg-side of Mark Steketee without troubling the scorers, Unmukt and in-form batsman Baba Aparajith (33) took the attack to the opposition.

The duo added 73 runs for the second-wicket playing the Aussie pace trio of Steketee, Joel Paris and Gurinder Sandhu with ease.

Unmukt was phenomenal in the closing stages hitting a couple of glorious sixes off Sandhu’s bowling.

The first was over long-off while second looked even more spectacular as he presented a full face of the bat with a nice follow through.

Aparajith on the other hand hit a nice hook shot off Paris and some lovely cover drives that pierced the field.

However, Sandhu had the last laugh when he forced Aparajith to drive on the up and was brilliantly caught by Ashton Turner at short-cover.

The Tamil Nadu all-rounder scored 33 off 38 balls with five hits to the fence. Hanuma Vihari (4) and Vijay Zol (1) didn’t score much but some damage was done by the number of deliveries that were consumed in the process.

Zol’s discomfort against the moving deliveries also frustrated Unmukt who didn’t get much of the strike. The Indian captain finally completed his half-century in 68 deliveries.

Zol’s agony ended as he edged one off Paris to wicketkeeper Jimmy Peirson. At 97 for four, Smit Patel joined Unmukt and the circumstances were difficult. The boundaries dried up and so did the singles.

It was Smit, who hit fine straight drives as India got their first boundary after 44 deliveries.

Slowly, the two resurrected the innings with singles and twos. There were the occasional boundaries but only a few compared to the flurry of fours that Unmukt and Aparajith hit in first 15 overs.

Earlier, India frittered away the early advantage, as defending champions Australia recovered from a shaky start to post a competitive 225 for 8.

Electing to field after winning the toss 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 from Tavis Head (37) and Ashton Turner. Sandeep Sharma (4-54) was the most successful bowler.

This is India’s third title after having won in 2000 and 2008.

Twitter abuzz with congratulatory message for India U-19 squad

India’s under-19 cricket team was swamped with congratulatory messages from politicians, cricketers and corporate bosses on twitterati for lifting its third U-19 World Cup title after a gap of four years.

From senior cricketers Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh to Union Sports Minister Ajay Maken, corporates Anand Mahindra and Vijay Mallya — all came together on Twitter to congratulate the Indian colts on their remarkable achievement.

While the junior Indian team did a Usain Bolt by striking his trademark ‘To The World’ pose after lifting the coveted trophy, players and other celebrities used social networking sites to express their joy after the visitors beat formidable defending champions Australia by six wickets at Tony Ireland Stadium.

“Champions champions champions. Well done India U—19 boys for bringing another world cup home. Very proud of u all. So happy. God bless u all,” tweeted India off—spinner Harbhajan Singh.

Yuvraj Singh wrote: “Proud of the colts!! Congratulations to the u—19 boys for winning the world cup! well played captain @UnmuktChand.”

Sports Minister Maken posted: “Congratulations”

India middle-batsman Manoj Tiwary was all praise for the Indian team.

“Thank you India U19 Team for making us proud by winning the World Cup trophy. And great inning by @UnmuktChand9 and well played Smit Patel.”

Indian Premier League Commissioner, Rajeev Shukla, extending his best wishes for Team India, wrote: “Congratulate Indian U19 team 4 a spectacular performance 2 lift the World Cup. Australian team deserves praise 4 putting up a good show too.

Former IPL chairman Lalit Modi also joined in to congratulate the Indian team.

“Congrats to the Indian Under 19 Boys for bringing home the Cup. These Boys are our Future,” he posted.

West Indies opener Chris Gayle wrote: “Great news. India won the U19 world cup. India beat Australia in world cup Final Congrats team India.”

UB Group chairman and owner of Royal Challengers Bangalore IPL team, Vijay Mallya tweeted: “Congrats Team India. Under 19 World Cup Champions. Good inspiration for the senior national team in the forthcoming World Cup.”

Anand Mahindra, Chairman, Mahindra Group also praised the team for its performance.

“This is what is so infectious about India:the FUTURE is always better&brighter.Congratulations to the Under—19 World Cup Cricket team..!” Mahindra wrote.

Beijing Games gold—medallist shooter, Abhinav Bindra congratulated the team, saying it was great to watch the match.

“Well done Unmukt Chand! Great to watch. Congrats to the team!”, he wrote on his Twitter page.

Former Indian spinner Murali Kartik wrote: “Well done the Under—19 lads..congrats.”

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi said the young cricketers have done the country proud.

“Our cricketers have done us proud yet again.

Congratulations to the young players for winning the ICC Under—19 Cricket World Cup“.

Former India opener Aakash Chopra was also full of praise for the youngsters. “The rewards of diligent and thorough preparation over the last 2 years. Well done BCCI. Well done young Team India”.


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News Network
May 15,2020

New Delhi, May 15: Former England skipper David Gower feels Sourav Ganguly has the right "political skills" to lead the ICC one day and he has already displayed that as BCCI president, which is a "far tougher job".

The elegant left-hander is very impressed with Ganguly's leadership abilities and believes that he has what it takes to head the global body in the future.

"One thing I have learnt over the years is that if you are going to run BCCI, you need to be many, many things. Having a reputation like he (Ganguly) has is a very good start, but you need to be a very deft politician.

"You need to have control of a million different things," Gower said ahead of "Q20", a unique chat show for the fans presented by 'GloFans'.

Gower reckons being president of the BCCI is the toughest job imaginable in world cricket.

"And of course, you need to be responsible for a game that is followed by, I mean, should we say a billion people here in India," he said.

"We all know about the immense following for cricket in India. So it is indeed a wonderful thing to behold. Sourav has the toughest task imaginable in charge of BCCI, but so far I would say the signs are very good.

"He has listened, given his own opinion and has pulled strings gently," he said.

Political skills are a must in administration and that's where Gower finds his fellow left-hander ticking all the boxes.

"He is a very, very good man and has those political skills. He has the right attitude and can keep things together and will do good job. And if you do a good job as BCCI chief in the future, who knows?

"But I would actually say the more important job, to be honest, is running BCCI. Being head of ICC is an honour, there is a lot that can be done by ICC, but actually look at the rankings, look at where the power is heading up. BCCI is definitely the bigger job," he said.

On the cricketing front, Gower believes World Test Championship has given the format much-needed context.

"The idea of this World Test Championship has come about for one very simple reason that people are worried about the survival of Tests. Back in the seventies, eighties, I don't think we needed context to be fair.

"Test cricket was very much more obviously the most important format and if there was anything to be judged by, it was the performances in Test matches both as an individual and as a team.

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Agencies
January 9,2020

Kuala Lumpur, Jan 9: BWF World Championships defending champion PV Sindhu on Thursday cruised to the quarterfinals of the ongoing Malaysia Masters after winning a second-round match.

The 24-year-old had the upper hand in the clash and thrashed Japan's Aya Ohori in straight games 21-10, 21-15 that lasted for 34-minute. The world number six will now play in her quarterfinal match on January 10.

Earlier in the day, Saina Nehwal defeated South Korea's An Se Young 25-23, 21-12 in 38 minutes. The first game saw back and forth action between both shuttlers. In the end, Nehwal kept her cool to win the match.

On Wednesday, the 29-year-old had outclassed Belgium's Lianne Tan 21-15, 21-17 to progress to the pre-quarterfinals.

Shuttlers Parupalli Kashyap and Kidambi Srikanth crashed out of the tournament after losing their matches to Japan's Kento Momota and Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei respectively. 

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News Network
July 3,2020

Karachi, Jul 3: Pakistan limited overs captain Babar Azam is tired of his constant comparisons with India skipper Virat Kohli and says he would rather be compared to the greats at home.

Babar, six years younger to Kohli, has a long way to go in getting close to Kohli's staggering numbers across formats. The India skipper has 70 hundreds to his name and averages more than 50 in all three formats.

"I would be more happy if you compare to me say a Javed Miandad, Muhammad Yousuf or Younis Khan. Why compare me to Kohli or any Indian player?" asked the 25-year-old, who is in England with the national team, said in an online media interaction on Thursday.

Babar has scored 16 international hundreds and averages more than 50 in ODIs and T20s. In 26 Tests, he has scored 1850 runs at 45.12.

He also said that he is not targeting any English bowler for the series next month.

"I don’t see who the bowler is or his reputation. I just try to play each ball on merit. England no doubt has a top bowling attack and they have advantage of playing at home but this is a challenge I want to score runs in," he said.

Before the squad’s departure for England, Pakistan batting coach Younis Khan said that pacer Joffra Archer will be a handful for the Pakistani batsmen.

Babar said that he would try to play every English bowler on merit but conceded that after getting runs in Australia last year, he was keen to leave his footprint in the coming Test and T20 series in England.

Reminded that some former Test players had already written off Pakistan for the England series, Babar said they were entitled to their opinion.

"But we don’t have a bad team and already we have been enjoying our training. It is good to be back on the field after such a long lay-off. I think we have the bowlers to trouble them like Abbas, Naseem, Shaheen and others while we have some experience in our batting line-up."

Babar said he would love to get a triple century in a Test match.

"When you score a century, you naturally want to go on and convert that into a double or a triple century. This is something I would like to do during the Test series.

"I like to play my natural game but my selection of shots depends on the conditions and bowlers."

Babar also ruled out any problems in the Pakistan dressing room due to the presence of former skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed, who was sacked last year.

But he said that since Muhammad Rizwan had been playing in all formats for Pakistan in recent times, he would be the starting keeper in the Test series ahead of Sarfaraz.

"I think we first have to give Rizwan a proper chance and Sarfaraz is there as back up."

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