ICC U19 Men’s WC24 Final: Australia’s comfortable win over India in ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup final match: A dominant cricket team, Australia produced a brilliant all-round performance to clinch their fourth ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup crown by defeating a strong Indian team amid a lively final atmosphere at Willowmoor Park in Benoni on Sunday.
Led by Hugh Wiebgen, Australia produced an extraordinary performance in a blockbuster final, first scoring the highest score ever in a U19 men’s CWC final and then producing an impeccable bowling display to demolish India’s target and win by 79 runs.
Echoing the dominance of Pat Cummins and his senior counterparts in India a few months earlier, the young Australian team secured his country’s first U19 title since Mitch Marsh led his team to victory in 2010.
India, who entered the tournament as defending champions, finished second in the U19 men’s CWC in their fifth consecutive final appearance.
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Also Read: U19 World Cup 2024: Most Successful Team, Full List of Winners and Runners-up | ICC Men’s U-19 World Cup Winners List
ICC U19 Men’s WC24 Final: India vs Australia Match Highlights
Under overcast skies at the Benoni Cricket Ground, Australia won the toss and elected to bat first and immediately got off to a strong start. Harry Dixon lived up to his growing reputation as a David Warner replica and provided pace to the innings by hitting two fours and a six off Naman Tiwari in the second over.
Raj Limbani was the first to strike for the Indian bowling team, which had looked so impressive ahead of the final, with a brilliant inswinger into the defense of Sam Konstas.
India included Soumi Pandey early in the attack, hoping to exploit any weakness in Hugh Wiebgen against left-arm spin. The Australian captain was dismissed by left-arm spinners in three matches in the tournament before the final, and once by Pandey himself in a warm-up game in January.
But with the left-handed Dixon at the other end, the Australian pair rotated the strike with ease against the Indian bowlers. Captain Uday Saharan turned to another left-arm spinner, Mushir Khan, to save Pandey’s overs, but the Webben-Dixon partnership grew in confidence.
Although the introduction of spin slowed down the scoring rate for a while, it did not allow wickets to be taken. As a result, India regained momentum after 11 consecutive overs of spin. It gave immediate benefits. Tiwary made a mistake off Wiebgen, who went straight to Musheer at backward point for 48.
Tiwary struck again in his next over and forced Dixon to loft one skyward with a well-disguised knuckle ball. With two quick wickets, India were back in contention but Harjas Singh, who had been struggling for form earlier in the tournament, rose to the occasion with a crucial innings.
Harjas, along with Ryan Hicks, led the Australian innings. With only two frontline pacemen and the medium pace of Arshin Kulkarni, India had no option but to revert to spin. However, the Australian pair continued to score runs with minimal risk.
Harjas opened against Priyanshu Molia and hit sixes and fours to establish his dominance over the bowling attack. He continued to attack the spinners thoroughly while Hicks regularly found the gaps to rotate the strike.
Limbani’s return yielded a wicket as the seamer trapped Hicks in front on 20 to break the partnership. Harjas continued without any worries and brought up a brilliant half-century – his first of the tournament – off 59 balls.
Pandey came back into the attack in the 38th over and gave India a big breakthrough by trapping Harjas at the score of 55. Musheer took another wicket of Raft McMillan in the 40th over and Australia slipped from 165/3 to 187/6.
Ollie Peake, who played match-winning innings in the semi-final, and Charlie Anderson continued to lead the way before Limbani trapped them in front in the 46th over to take his third wicket.
Peak remained unbeaten on 46 as Australia finished on 253, the highest score recorded in a U19 men’s CWC final.
India faced a tough target against a strong pace attack. Callum Vidler started the second innings with a maiden over and Anderson, who had taken four wickets in the warm-up match against India, bowled another tight over with the new ball.
The mounting pressure resulted in a blow to the first wicket – Vidler dismissed Kulkarni on a ball heading towards the seam. Australia got the first blow and it forced India into defensive mode with Adarsh Singh and Musheer Khan aiming to avoid the new ball from the Australian fast bowlers.
Musheer showed early glimpses of promise with some excellent shots, one of them a seamless punch down the ground for four. However, Mahali Beardman was brought into the attack and the extra pace of the right-hander’s angular deliveries exposed the gap in the batsman’s defence.
India’s most reliable batsman in the tournament, their captain Uday Saharan, joined Adarsh in the middle, leaving his team in deep trouble. The scoring rate had not increased, and they were looking at a big target having already lost two wickets.
Saharan attempted to break free after a cautious start, but an aggressive drive resulted in a thick lead which reached Wiebgen at backward point as Beardman quickly struck for the second time.
India’s troubles increased further when in-form batsman Sachin Dhaas was out on the very first ball of McMillan. The off-spinner had Dhas caught for nine, leaving India in a bad position at 68/4.
Adarsh got some company from Moliya and the stand took India into the nineties, but he top-edged Anderson and the resistance was broken.
In the next over, Aravelli Avneesh gave a return catch to McMillan and India got six wickets.
Feeling the growing need to add runs, Adarsh attempted to accelerate his slow innings by hitting a four and a six off Vidler. However, he eventually bowled a short ball from Beardman to the ‘keeper, and after patiently monitoring the crease, was out for 47.
Our plan was to bat first and try and get runs on the board. We backed ourselves. A quality innings from Harjas [Singh]. Full credit to the coaches for sticking with him. They [pacers] can go far as a unit, they know their roles so well. I’ll be surprised if the four of them don’t go a long way in their careers. India are a class side, they dominated the whole tournament, just came out on the wrong side.”
Indian captain Uday Saharan commended the fighting spirit of his team and hoped to learn from the experience.
“I’m proud of the boys, they played very well and showed good fighting spirit. We played a few rash shots and didn’t spend time in the middle. We were prepared but couldn’t quite execute well. There are a lot of learnings from the tournament. We learnt a lot from the coaches and support staff and, more importantly, from the games themselves.”
Also read: U19 Batting Stats: ICC Men’s World Cup 2024 Complete Batting Statistics
ICC U19 Men’s WC24 Final: India vs Australia Match Scorecard.
India U19 Batting
| Batsman | R | B | 4S | 6S | S/R |
| Adarsh Singh | 47 | 77 | 4 | 1 | 61.03 |
| Arshin Kulkarni | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 50 |
| Musheer Khan | 22 | 33 | 3 | 0 | 66.66 |
| Uday Saharan (c) | 8 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 44.44 |
| Sachin Dhas | 9 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 112.50 |
| Priyanshu Moliya | 9 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 42.85 |
| Aravelly Avanish | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Murugan Abhishek | 42 | 46 | 5 | 1 | 91.30 |
| Raj Limbani | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Naman Tiwari | 14 | 35 | 0 | 1 | 40 |
| Saumy Pandey | 2 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 15.38 |
| Australia Bowling | O | R | W | M | ECO |
| Callum Vidler | 10 | 35 | 2 | 2 | 3.50 |
| Charlie Anderson | 9 | 42 | 1 | 0 | 4.66 |
| Tom Straker | 7.5 | 32 | 1 | 1 | 4.08 |
| Mahli Beardman | 7 | 15 | 3 | 2 | 2.14 |
| Rafael Macmillan | 10 | 43 | 3 | 0 | 4.30 |
Australia U19 Batting
| Batsman | R | B | 4S | 6S | S/R |
| Harry Dixon | 42 | 56 | 3 | 1 | 75 |
| Sam Konstas | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Hugh Weibgen (c) | 48 | 66 | 5 | 0 | 72.72 |
| Harjas Singh | 55 | 64 | 3 | 3 | 85.93 |
| Ryan Hicks (wk) | 20 | 25 | 2 | 0 | 80 |
| Ollie Peake | 46 | 43 | 2 | 1 | 106.97 |
| Rafael Macmillan | 2 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 25 |
| Charlie Anderson | 13 | 18 | 0 | 1 | 72.22 |
| Tom Straker | 8 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 61.53 |
| India Bowling | O | R | W | M | ECO |
| Raj Limbani | 10 | 38 | 3 | 0 | 3.80 |
| Naman Tiwari | 9 | 63 | 2 | 0 | 7.00 |
| Saumy Pandey | 10 | 41 | 1 | 0 | 4.10 |
| Musheer Khan | 9 | 46 | 1 | 0 | 5.11 |
| Murugan Abhishek | 10 | 37 | 0 | 0 | 3.70 |
| Priyanshu Moliya | 2 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 8.50 |
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