Story behind Windies� triumph in U-19 World Cup
Sports Reporter
When the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup began in the last month, no one was ready to term the West Indies as favourites. The spotlight was on Bangladesh and India, the two of which were absolute favourites to win the title. The hosts even didnt make it final while India went into the match as overwhelmingly favourites but only denied by a resurgent West Indies who got better as the time wore on.
Even the Mankad incident, for which they faced a lot of criticism, couldnt make them psychologically down.
Yet the tournament that began with slight hiccup ended with the funky dance moves of the youth from the Caribbean islands.
The tournament however caught the attention following the Australias decision to pull it out over security issues, a thing that created a lot of pressure to Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) deliver a successful event. Like the other tournaments that the country hosted successfully, this ultimately came out as successful venture, proving the Australias decision a wrong one. While, off the field, BCB showed Australia what the country is capable of, West Indies showed the rest of the cricketing world that they could revive the past aura if the countrys cricket presents them a functional system.
West Indies however had the start as worst as it could be. After being whitewashed to Bangladesh in 3-match series, leading up to the tournament, they set off their journey in the tournament proper with a crushing 61-run loss to the England. They regrouped well in the second match to annihilate the tournaments weakest team Fiji by 262 runs.
Their last group match against Zimbabwe became a do or die match for both of the teams since the winner only could make it to the quarter-finals. West Indies entered the quarter-final in controversial and tense circumstances, as Keemo Paul effected a Mankad to claim the last Zimbabwe batsman - that of Richard Ngarava - with three runs needed off the final over. Paul ran through the bowling crease without entering his delivery stride and broke the stumps, catching the non-striker Ngarava with his bat on the line while he was standing a couple of steps out of his crease.
For a young it was tough to play a knock out match when the criticism over the incident was going on vehemently. But the West Indian youth showed the nerve against Pakistan in the quarter-final match. Given the performance of the two teams, they were underdog but surprisingly pulled off things to set up a semi-final clash against Bangladesh. The match against Pakistan announced the arrival of their fast bowlers Alzarri Joseph and Cheamer Holder, who clocked over 140 km regularly to keep the batsmen at bay.
As their journey seemed to come to an end, they took the world by surprise yet again. The Caribbean side put an overwhelming and passionate effort in a tough condition to overcome the hot favourite Bangladesh by three wickets.
After spending almost one month in the country, West Indies adapted to the condition quite well. They were more determined than the team of the last month when they were whitewashed by Bangladesh in the three-match series.
While Gidron Pope gave them a whirlwind start, skipper Shimron Hetmyer set a good platform. Shamar Springer utilized it well to take the side home after which he broke down his signature dance that in his own language chestroll.
After going through a nervy moment against a high quality bowling attack in the crease, Springers chestroll was anticipated. His teammates also joined him in jigging, substantiating how the win meant to the players from the Caribbean Islands.
Springers chestrolling was on a roll yet again in the final when they beat India by five wickets to be crowned as champions.
The West Indiess success came up as a result of their total team effort but the way their fast bowlers demolished the opponents in every knock out games rekindled the memory of the 80s fearsome fast bowling troop.
However none of the West Indies team could attain the top place in batting or bowling chart. Shamar Springer came up as fifth with 285 runs in the batting chart what was topped by Englands Jack Burham who score 420 runs with three centuries, equalling Shikhar Dhawans most century records in 2004. Fritz Coetzee of Namibia claimed 15 wickets in six matches to top the bowling chart. West Indiess most successful bowler was Joseph who snapped up 123 wickets to finish as fifth.
Bangladeshs captain Mehidy Hassan Miraj was awarded man of the tournament for his 242 runs and 12 wickets.
