For some Indians, the under-19 cricket world cup was already won when the Indian boys defeated the Pakistan team. However, there was still the actual final to deal with. India faced off against Bangladesh in the finals and in a rain-interrupted match, it was Bangladesh that managed to win the day.
India have won the cup four times (and were defending champions until yesterday) and hoped for a fifth title. However with a paltry 177 to defend, the going was always going to be tough.
The rain-curtailed match meant a revised 170 run target for Bangladesh and a comfortable win in the end.
It may have been the junior world cup, but there were a lot of fans with emotional investments in that final on 9 February 2020.
Cricketer J P Duminy tweeted the final moments of the match when the Bangladesh team won the game to lift their maiden trophy.
The same poet who wrote Jana Gana Mana also wrote Amar Shonar Bangla.
Indian cricket fans were not happy.
As defending champions who had trounced the opposition in their semifinal, India were favourites to win. However, it was not to be.
Though the final did not go India’s way, there was no doubt that the boys in blue played a great game of cricket through the series.
This tweet points out the general attitude Indian parents have towards sports and the importance given to academic pursuits.
Bangladesh was cruising at one point; 50 without loss when Ravi Bishnoi but the brakes on their fortunes.
His four wickets brought India back into the reckoning for a while; however India’s modest total was always going to be difficult to defend.
This is probably true.
Yashasvi Jaiswal was certainly one of the main highlights of the tournament and his consistent performance with the bat earned him Man of the Tournament.
The Yashasvi Jaiswal story is inspiring for a lot of reasons. The young lad now has plenty of dedicated new fans. So India may have lost the under 19 world cup final to Bangladesh but have discovered new talents that show the way for the future of Indian cricket.
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