By Anushka Rajvedi
The Indian women’s cricket team created history on Sunday, after clinching the title of ICC Women’s U-19 World Cup from South Africa.
Led by captain Nikki Prasad, India overpowered South Africa with a victory of nine wickets on Sunday, in the final match of ICC Women’s U-19 World Cup held at Bayuemas Oval, Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. Before defeating England in the semi-finals, India won every stage-match that was held against Sri Lanka, West Indies and Malaysia. Apart from this, it also maintained its position in the matches of the Super Six squad, by smashing down Sctoland and Bangladesh to join the squad of Australia, South Africa and England, in the semi-finals.
South Africa won the toss and elected to bat first. However, with strategic fielding of India, the team was hardly able to chase the run score of 82 runs. As they had to bowl first, India took over South Africa by continuous wickets, which led them to hit only 82 runs by the end of 20 overs. India very conveniently, on the other hand, achieved the target of 83 runs, in just 52 balls and at a loss of just one wicket.
Former Indian cricket, Mithali Raj celebrating the victory of the Indian team claimed that this win was no big surprise with a team of young and talented players. In an interview with The Hindustan Times, Mithali said that, “Although she did not follow the entire match, what grabbed her attention was the awareness of the situation that the young players had about the field.” Appreciating the efforts taken by the National Cricket Academy (NCA) and the State Associations, she further added that, “the efforts of conducting various training programs, camps and tours is evident in the game of these young players. With such initiatives, there is a level of maturity and field awareness amongst the young players, which is an important aspect for every player.” She added that, “the consecutive wins of the team in the U-19 World Cup is a result of these steps taken by the State Association and the NCA.”
While the team created a record for itself, by making 309 runs, Gongadi Trisha was the ‘stand-out’ player in the tournament.