Darwin, July 12 (IANS) India won the Under-19 International Series after demolishing Australia by eight wickets in the final at Marrara Oval here on Friday.
India never looked troubled in their run chase and reached Australia’s total of 75 in only the 16th over to finish the series unbeaten. Sanju Samson (20 not out) and Ankush Bains (40) got the team home with 207 balls to spare.
Indian captain Vijay Zol won Player of the Series after a dominant tournament with the bat, scoring 284 runs. The Man of the Match was medium pacer Deepak Hooda, who in his 10 overs took three wickets for 22 runs.
Abhimanyu Lamba, Chama Milind and Kuldeep Yadav struck twice as Australian batting collapsed like a house of cards.
The Australian players may have spent last night watching one of last year’s Australian U-19 representatives, Ashton Agar, bat his way into history in England. But they were unable to use that inspiration to produce any Agar-like heroics with the bat.
Australian fast bowler Matt Fotia was the only player to snare a five-for during the tournament and finished top of the bowling table with 10 scalps at an average of 17.20.
Sixteen-year-old Jake Doran was the best of the Aussie bats throughout the tournament with a spectacular average of 195 and an aggregate of 195 runs (second behind Zol).
The third in the team tournament was New Zealand.
The series is part of Cricket Australia’s (CA) Under 19 high-performance program and has a history of producing the next generation of Australian players including Michael Clarke, James Pattinson and Agar.
