The Indian youth team did the country proud today when they beat SriLanka by six wickets at Colombo to win the Under-19 World Cup

Anand Vasu28-Jan-2000The Indian youth team did the country proud today when they beat SriLanka by six wickets at Colombo to win the Under-19 World Cup.When Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat first with a full housecrowd drumming up a racket at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo, ashiver or two must have gone through the spines of the Indians. Ifthere were any nerves at all, they did not show at all as ShalabSriwastava ran in to deliver his first over. After three balls thathinted at movement in the overcast, windy conditions, Sriwastava gotone to cut back in to Ian Daniels. The Lankan opener was trapped onthe crease and before he could adjust his stroke, the ball had rappedhim dead in line. Trapped plumb in front, a dejected Daniels walkedback to the pavilion.The new batsman Jehan Mubarak mixed caution with aggression well,blunting the movement by getting a long stride in. When the ball wasup for the drive, both Mubarak and Rashan Pieris went after the ball,hitting clearly through the line. Mubarak in particular was crisp onthe drive. Every now and then, Tripathi would tempt the southpaw to gofor the drive by pitching the ball up. Unfailingly, Mubarak climbed into the drive and smacked the ball away to the boundaries. He was notafraid of taking the aerial route and cleared the infield with ease.After their initial hiccup, the Lankans began to bat freely. Thewicket also eased up a bit and fewer balls beat the edge.After a good spell of 6-2-15-1, Sriwastava was replaced by RS Sodhi. Acouple of loud shouts for LBW were turned down in Sodhi’s first over,but the lad bowled his military medium pacers unfazed.In Tripathi’s 7th over, the 14th of the innings, Pieris went after aball that was not there for the drive. The ball struck the bat higherthan Pieris expected and ballooned towards mid on. Anup Dave jogged ina couple of steps and completed an easy catch. Pieris had made 17, butlooked good for a bit more.In attempt to get the scoring rate up without striking big boundaries,the batsmen began to take more risks running between the wickets. WhenMubarak struck the ball to extra cover and pushed hard on the firstrun it was clear that the non striker, Kandamby would be struggling onthe second run. Venugopal Rao running in from the deep, picked theball up on the run and threw the stumps down in a flash. Umpire Asokade Silva asked for the third umpire to adjudicate. The confidence ofthe Indians’ body language was confirmed when the red light sentKandamby on his way.The captain Malintha Gajanayake walked in to a huge roar from thecrowd and joined the well set Mubarak.Kaif took himself out of the attack and brought in Anup Dave. Theleft arm orthodox spinner Dave gave the ball a lot of air and kept itat a full length. He bowled his first three overs for 8 runs. Sodhi,bowling unchanged, finished his 10 overs for just 26 runs.Malintha Gajanayake played a nothing shot to Dave, attempting to steerthe ball to the third man. The ball turned away a shade from the righthander, kissed the outside edge and went into the waiting hands ofAjay Ratra behind the stumps. Sri Lanka had lost their captain, andthe score was 99/4 after 32 overs.Kaif’s return to the attack after swapping ends paid immediatedividends. Jehan Mubarak who had occupied the crease for 152 minuteswas bogged down by the nagging line Kaif bowled. When one ball stoppedon him slightly, his attempt to loft the ball past the bowler ended upin Kaif’s safe hands. His innings of 58 helped Sri Lanka consolidateafter they had lost wickets early. However, as the overs rolled by,the pressure began to mount and the need to score quick runs becamemore urgent. In the end, his spending a long time at the crease mighthave been a blessing in disguise for India.The Lankans then lost their way, with wickets falling at regularintervals. The last two wickets fell in exciting fashion. RanilDhammika attempted a pull shot to a ball that was faster than heexpected. The ball ballooned into the air and looked like it wouldland in no man’s land. Sodhi, charging in from midwicket, threwhimself full length and just about got his hands under theball. Tumbling hard on the ground, Sodhi held on to the ball and cameup in exultation. The catch was easily the most spectacular of thetournament.After Sodhi took the catch, he was bleeding from the elbow. He lookedwinded and it would have surprised no one if a substitute fielder waspressed into action. However he chose to stick on and with goodresult. A ball played gently to him by Nissanka was flicked backunderarm and found the mark. The batsman was well short of his groundand the umpire did not even need the assistance of the thirdumpire. The finger went up and the Sri Lankan innings had come to anend on 178.Chasing small totals is not always easy. Though the Indian openers hadposted three 100 plus scores, the conditions here at the SSC gavemedium pacers some encouragement.Prabath Nissanka, bowling with the wind behind him, got the ball tomove in the air. Manish Sharma took first strike for India and leftthe ball well alone outside off stump. Sharma did not attempt anythingflashy at the start of the innings.To complement Nissanka, Akalanka Ganegama began tidily from the otherend, sending down a maiden over to begin his spell.Ricky played a wild heave to a straight ball from Lokuarachchi and wasclean bowled. Ricky looked restless through his stay at the wicket andit was not a complete surprise that he was dismissed playing anextravagant shot. He had made 18 including three boundaries.Mohammad Kaif walked out to the middle with spinners operating fromboth ends. The Sri Lankans set an unusual field to the left armspinner, packing the off side and leaving huge gaps on the legside. The ploy seemed to work as the batsmen were reluctant to playagainst the spin.Sharma failed to pick a straight ball from Dhammika and was rapped onthe pads. He was about half a foot outside the crease. The ballappeared to be going down the leg side with the angle of thedelivery. A marginal decision, but umpire Peter Manuel had nohesitation in lifting the finger and sending Sharma on his way. His 27included five boundaries.After the fireworks in the semifinals against Australia, the SriLankans were wary of Yuvraj Singh and set very defensive fields to thesouthpaw. However, the situation was very different in the previousgame and Yuvraj was content pushing the ball into the outfield andpicking up singles. It must be said though that he struck the ballvery hard most of the time.The Indians now made sure they did not lose any more wickets. Yuvrajwas less solid than Kaif, and played and missed more than once. Whenhe did middle the ball, it usually sped away to the boundary.When Ganegama was brought into the attack, the Sri Lankan captain wasimmediately rewarded as Kaif misjudged the line of a full lengthdelivery and inside edged it onto the stumps. The captain’s slow knockof 18 off 50 balls had come to an end just when he looked good.Sodhi came to the wicket with the score on 94/3. After stroking hisway to 27 that included four handsome boundaries, Yuvraj attempted asweep off a full toss and missed the ball. A loud shout fromPushpakumara, backed up well by the Lankan infielders saw the dreadedfinger go up. However, television replays seemed to suggest that theball may have come off the inside edge.Niraj Patel continued the fight for India with Sodhi who had helpedhimself to 16 runs at that stage. India were in a spot of bother at122/4 after 30 overs.Patel and Sodhi played sensibly to bring up an easy Indian victory bysix wickets. Patel’s timing through his innings was exemplary. He didnot hit attempt to the ball hard, but instead used the pace of thebowlers to score his runs. He cut the ball behind the wicket, workedit away on the leg side and took very few risks. At the other end,Sodhi played well within his limitations. He ended up with 39 not outoff 43 balls. Patel had 34 off 38 balls as India cruised to victorywith just under 10 overs to spare.The tame finish to the game took some of the excitement from thevictory. It took some time for the magnitude of the triumph to set in.At the prize giving ceremony, the Indian team were overwhelmed withemotion and cheered each other on. Speaking to pressmen, the Indiancoach Roger Binny said that this team had a similar composition to theteam that won the senior World Cup in 1983. More importantly theydisplayed the same fighting qualities as well, he added.