INDIA UNDER 19 OVER THE MOON

CHAMPIONS Dravid’s boys beat Australia by 8 wickets in a onesided final; Punjab’s Shubman Gill is man of tournament

NEW DELHI: India won its fourth Under-19 Cricket World Cup, and India great Rahul Dravid won his first World Cup (across categories), with the team crushing Australia by eight wickets to cap an unbeaten run in the tournament.

India cruised through the match, after bowling the Australians out for 216, with the only blip at the Bay Oval ground in New Zealand’s Mount Maunganui coming from a brief spell of rain. Still, it was in the fitness of things that even the rain never looked threatening enough to derail India’s march to a well-deserved win.

The win proves that India has a healthy pipeline of future cricketing talent – the Indian senior team’s captain, Virat Kohli, was captain of the team that won the 2008 U-19 World Cup – and that Rahul Dravid has lived up to expectations of being an excellent coach.

Not surprisingly, Twitter exploded with calls for his eventual ascension to the job of coach of the senior team, although it remains to be seen whether Dravid will even want a job which is as political as that one.

In the final, opening batsman Manjot Kalra completed an unbeaten 101, a milestone that came just before India’s win, even as his teammates lined up on the boundary to begin celebrations. There was a minor scramble for stumps, with 15 young men vying for six sticks.

Dravid took over as U-19 and India A coach in 2015. His stamp has been clear from the build-up – from insisting that players get a feel of first-class cricket to sorting out their technique.

India kicked off the campaign three weeks ago with a 100-run win over three-times Australia, and the Prithvi Shaw-led team maintained the same ruthless approach till the end.