Credit: BCCI
On March 2, 2008, India beat South Africa by 12 runs in the final of the U19 Cricket World Cup 2008 and registered their second title win in the junior 50-over ICC tournament. After winning the toss, South Africa captain Wayne Parnell invited India to bat first. In the mega contest, India lost their openers early as Taruwar Kohli and Shreevats Goswami departed early after scoring in single digits. Tanmay Srivastava and captain Virat Kohli stood at the crease and took India’s innings ahead.
The Indian skipper fell on 19 after consuming 34 balls as pacer Pieter Malan stood tall and delivered the third breakthrough to the Protea team. Tanmay’s batting effort (46 off 74) helped India post 159 runs in 45.4 overs. Following India’s innings, rain interrupted the play which curtailed the match. After the rain intervention, South Africa were tasked to chase down 116 in 25 overs.
Defending the total, India decimated the Protea’s top-order as Ajitesh Argal got the better of Pieter Malan and Rilee Rossouw. Reeza Hendricks (35 off 43) and captain Wayne Parnell (29 off 40) strove to put up a fight but capitulated eventually. Wicketkeeper-batter Bradley Barnes produced some good strokes from his bat but lost his battle to Siddharth Kaul, who cleaned him up in the 25th over of the innings, to hand India a famous victory.
The scintillating victory led to Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja making it big for Team India
India’s U19 success grabbed the attention of the BCCI, who recognised the talents of Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja. Kohli, who guided the side to success with his leadership prowess, made his ODI debut against Sri Lanka in Dambulla and broke into the senior Indian team in August 2008.
Ravindra Jadeja also got his international debut in February 2009 with his maiden 50-over match against Sri Lanka in Colombo. Both Kohli and Jadeja have achieved immense success in international cricket. Recently, Kohli pulled off the feat of completing 14000 ODI runs and joined the elite list of Kumar Sangakkara and Sachin Tendulkar, who have achieved the milestone before him.
