Under-19 World Cup final

Under-19 World Cup final: Can India claim fourth title?

  On Sunday at Dhaka's Shere Bangla National Stadium, the Indian team led by Ishan Kishan will play its West Indian counterparts in the final of the 2016 ICC Under-19 World Cup. This is the fourth time that an Indian team has made the final of the junior World Cup.

Here's a look at the past instances and how India fared.

Year: 1999-2000 Beat: Sri Lanka Where: Sri Lanka
 
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The team led by Mohammad Kaif reached the final after wins over Bangladesh (by 122 runs), New Zealand (by 28 runs), Nepal (by eight wickets), England (by nine wickets), Sri Lanka (by 41 runs) and Australia (by 170 runs). At the SSC in the summit clash, Kaif's team bowled out the hosts for 178 in 48.1 overs with Shalabh Srivastava leading the way with 3/33 (there were four run outs too) and chased the target in 40.4 overs for the loss of four wickets. Though Kaif (18) and his future senior India team-mate Yuvraj Singh (27) failed to fire, the win was sealed by Reetinder Singh Sodhi (39* off 43 balls) and Niraj Patel (34* off 44). Sodhi would go on to play 18 ODIs in the next two years while Patel has to his credit nearly 6000 first-class runs.

Of that batch of 1999-2000, others who donned the India cap were wicketkeeper-batsman Ajay Ratra and batsman Venugopal Rao.

Year: 2005-06 Lost to: Pakistan Where: Sri Lanka
 
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India's next appearance at the U-19 World Cup final came in 2005-06. The road to the final saw the team captained by Ravikant Shukla beat Namibia (by nine wickets), Scotland (by eight wickets), Sri Lanka (by four wickets), West Indies (by 126 runs) and England (by 234 runs) to set up a tantalising final against Sarfraz Ahmed's Pakistan side.

On the big day, India did splendidly to bowl Pakistan out for 109 in 41.1 overs, with the spin pair of Ravindra Jadeja (3/16) and Piyush Chawla (4/8) leading the way. However, the batting failed collectively against the price of Anwar Ali, whose 5/35 fetched him the Player-of-the-Match award. The final was over as a contest when Ali combined with Jamshed Ahmed to reduce India to 9/6 in just 3.2 overs, with the likes of Gaurav Dhiman, Cheteshwar Pujara and Rohit Sharma all failing. Chawla's unbeaten 25 dragged the total to 71 before the last wicket fell to Akhtar Ayub (3/9) in the 19th over. Some consolation for India was that Pujara was named Player of the Series for his 349 runs at 116.33, featuring a best of 129* and two fifties.

From the XI that lost to Pakistan at the SSC, four went on to play for India at the highest level - Pujara, Jadeja, Rohit and Chawla.

Year: 2007-08 Beat: South Africa Where: Malaysia

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The next edition of the tournament was won by Virat Kohli's spirited bunch. The team's campaign got underway with a 195-run win over Papua New Guinea and followed up by a six-wicket success over South Africa and a 50-win win over West Indies to ensure passage into the knockout stage. At the quarter-finals, India brushed aside England by seven wickets and then scrapped past New Zealand by three wickets with nine balls remaining in a Duckworth/Lewis win in the semi-final. Against a strong South African unit, Kohli's India emerged victorious by the D/L method again, this time by 12 runs.

Barring Tanmay Srivastava's 46, no other Indian player topped 20 out of a total of 159 in 45.3 overs. But thanks to an outstanding spell of 5-2-7-2 from medium-pacer Ajitesh Argal and fine work from Jadeja, Sidharth Kail and Iqbal Abdullah, India held on for a tense win.

Kohli's success as batsman and captain earned him an ODI cap a few months later, and today he is India's Test captain and most dependable batsman in all formats. Of his U-19 team-mates of 2008, Saurabh Tiwary, Manish Pandey and Jadeja have joined him in the senior side at various levels.

Year: 2012 Beat: Australia Where: Australia

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Four years later, India lifted the trophy or the third time with a six-wicket win over hosts Australia with skipper Unmukt Chand yet again showing his big-match temperament with an unbeaten century. Australia had been kept to 225/8 after Sandeep Sharma took four wickets, and the win was completed with Unmukt carrying his bat for 111 off 130 deliveries, his fourth century in a knock-out match in 2012. He was ably assisted by Baba Aparajith (33) and wicketkeeper Smit Patel (62 not out), who hit the winning runs with a boundary as India won with 14 balls remaining.

India's road to that final at Townsville had been possible because of wins over Zimbabwe (by 63 runs), PNG (by 107 runs), Pakistan (by one wicket) and New Zealand (by nine runs). Six years on, of that winning unit only Punjab pace bowler Sandeep Sharma has played for India at the highest level.