Under-19 World Cup final: West Indies beat India by 5 wickets to win title

MirpurThe Indian under19 cricket teams quest for an unprecedented fourth World Cup title ended in disaster as the West Indies outwitted the Rahul Dravidcoached side by five wickets in a tense summit clash to clinch the coveted trophy for the first time since its inceptionPut in to bat by the Caribbeans on a greentop amid overcast conditions the script went completely awry for the Indians who were dismissed for 145 in 451 overs with Sarfaraz Khans 89ball 51 being the only noteworthy contributionWest Indies cricketer Keacy Carty plays a shot during the under19s World Cup cricket final between India and West Indies at the ShereBangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka AFP PHOTOMunir uz ZAMAN AFP MUNIR UZ ZAMANIn reply the West Indies made heavy weather of the chase in a slowmoving but thrilling match to overhaul the score in 493 oversThe heroes for West Indies were Man of the Match Keacy Carty 52 not out off 125 ball and Keemo Paul 40 not out off 68 balls both of whom kept their cool in the highpressure game to take the side homeChasing the modest target the Caribbeans were not off to the best of starts as both their openers Gifron Pope 3 and Tevin Imlach 15 were dismissed with just 28 runs on the boardSkipper Shimron Hetmyer 23 and Carty then put together a 39run thirdwicket stand to steady the rocking boat However leftarm spinner Mayank Dagar gave India the muchneeded breakthrough when he got Hetmyer caught at long on by Armaan JafferNext man in was Shamar Springer 3 the West Indies most successful batsman of the tournament with 282 runs prior to today But the righthander could not make an impact today and struggled for nine deliveries before an attempted slog sweep had him caught by Jaffer off Dagar againWhile wickets were tumbling around him Carty kept his cool to plough on even though the scoring rate was painfully slow Proceedings livened up when Carty was joined by Paul The 17yearold Paul pushed hard for his singles and it was his six off Dagar which broke the shackles for West Indies after a lengthy stretch of dot ballsThe 69run stand between Carty and Paul made all the difference in the end as the unbeaten Indians finally found their match in the summit clashThe Indian bowlers led by Dagar 325 were saddled with the tough task of defending a paltry total and they did a decent job for most part of the match but eventually it was not to be enoughThe Indian fielders were also guilty of spilling a few good chances which could have tilted the match in their teams favourThe Ishan Kishanled Indians were looking to win their first World Cup since 2012Earlier the Indian batsmen faltered when it mattered the most as the threetime champions were bowled out for 145 The same batsmen who helped India stay unbeaten earlier in the competition failed to apply themselves in the big gameSarfaraz was the lone exception as he saved India the embarrassment of being bowled out for a sub100 total with a fifth fifty plus score in six innings also making him only one to score most half centuries 7 in the history of the tournamentWhile the Indian batting flattered to deceive the West Indies bowlers did well to exploit the conditions Alzarri Joseph 339 ran through top order before Ryan John 338 landed crucial blows for his teamChemar Holder kept things tight to maintain pressure on the Indian batsmen conceding only 20 runs in 10 overs with a timely wicket of Mahipal LomrorIndia aiming for an unprecedented fourth title lost their top three for 27 runs all falling to Joseph Rishabh Pant was stumped in an unusual manner with West Indian keeper Tevin Imlach showing presence of mind to fox the Indian opener who was standing out of his crease while leaving an away going deliveryAnmolpreet Singh who scored a gritty fifty in the semifinals edged a sharp one to the wicketkeeper And soon after captain Ishan Kishan was gone too ending his disappointing run in the tournament where he ended with a solitary fifty in six innings However he was out leg before wicket to a ball that appeared to pitch outside the legstumpThe fall of Armaan Jaffer made it 50 for five and after that began the innings repair exercise by Sarfaraz and Lomror 19 off 43 who added 37 runs for the sixth wicketIndia badly needed another decent partnership to put up a respectable total but that did not happen as Sarfaraz kept running out of partners until he missed a crossed batted shot to be caught plumb in front leaving his team at 120 for eightHis 89ball effort comprised five fours and a six The tail did not contributed much but it was not expected to after an ordinary batting effort earlier in the innings