India became winners of the ICC U-19 World Cup for the fifth time when they beat England in the final at Antigua on Saturday (February 5).
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VVS Laxman said India’s victory in the ICC U-19 World Cup final against England on Saturday (February 5) showed the team’s ‘resilience and positive attitude’.
India won the final by four wickets to become five-time winners of the tournament. But the team had to overcome a COVID-19 outbreak in the middle of the tournament to even get this far.
And former India batsman Laxman, who now heads up the National Cricket Academy (NCA), praised the team for overcoming what could have been a knockout blow.
“In the middle of this tournament, we all know what happened to the boys. To test positive (for Covid) but show the kind of resilience and positive attitude was exemplary,” Laxman told the broadcasters.
Making sure to take a few snaps before the #U19CWC trophy goes in the cabinet ?? pic.twitter.com/h3mryIGACa
— ICC (@ICC) February 6, 2022
Laxman also pointed out another COVID-related issue; the boys lacked game time coming into the tournament.
“The number of matches and tournaments each age group level gets to play, whether U16, U19 or U23. Unfortunately due to Covid they didn’t get to play any tournaments and that’s why I think this tournament win is very special.
“It’s important but this is just a learning process and just the start of their journey. Everyone in this group understands that.
“This is about development as players and as a person and it’s great to see how they’ve developed and evolved over the last couple of months but this is just the start of their journey as a cricketer.”
The win wasn’t a straightforward one for India either. They did well to restrict England to only 190 at the end of the first innings.
However, the English bowlers did well to restrict the Indians from scoring freely and even sniffed a chance when James Sales dismissed Shaik Rasheed and Yash Dhull off back-to-back deliveries.
But India ended up closing the match when Dinesh Bana smacked consecutive sixes off Sales in the 48th over.
It was a finish that, according to head coach Hrishikesh Kanitkar, was ‘too exciting’ for his own good.
“It’s too exciting for my good, but happy with the result. I think we learned a lot from this,” said Kanitkar.
Nevertheless, he praised the U-19 World Cup as a great stage for young talents to perform on.
“I think it’s a fabulous competition, getting this stage to perform at this young age, for all teams. It’s a great opportunity to showcase talent and for the academies around the world.”
