By CricketCountry Staff
India Under 19 cricket team captain Unmukt Chand on Sunday revealed that senior team’s skipper MS Dhoni’s words inspired him during their chase in the final of the ICC U 19 World Cup, which their side won by defeating Australia by six wickets.
Published: Aug 26, 2012, 05:38 PM (IST)
Edited: Aug 26, 2012, 05:38 PM (IST)
Unmukt Chand said it was critical to have wickets in hand during their run-chase © Getty Images
By CricketCountry Staff
India Under 19 cricket team captain Unmukt Chand on Sunday revealed that senior team’s skipper MS Dhoni’s words inspired him during their chase in the final of the ICC U 19 World Cup, which their side won by defeating Australia by six wickets.
Chand played a splendid innings of 111 not out to guide India to their third World Cup win in the format, adding 130 runs for the fifth wicket with Smit Patel.
Chand said, “I had heard Dhoni speak (about) this before… that (in the) 38th over, I won’t take a risk because the bowler is not as frustrated as he is in the 46th or the 47th over.”
“I may take a risk (then) because the bowling side is also more pressurised. I was just thinking that I should also take it to the last moment, because you know six, seven or eight runs, you can get anytime in an over.
“The important thing was to save wickets. If you have wickets in hand, even eight or nine (per over) on this track was not a difficult task,” he said.
Chand is happy with the way his side turned up in the tournament, as the build-up for it started in September 2011.
Under Chand’s captaincy, India won the quadrangular cup held in the country and also won the same tournament which was later held in Australia. The Asia Cup final against Pakistan ended in a tie.
Reflecting on his side’s performance, Chand said, “”We have played four tournaments until now. It has been a long journey starting from Vizag (Vishakhapatnam) to the quad series to the Asia Cup to the World Cup.
“It has been a great journey and a great finish I can say. Now probably we don’t know when we will play again, probably we won’t play again together so that’s a bit of an emotional thing as well. (I am) really happy that we could pull it off and finish it on a high.
“(In all four tournaments) initially we have had a few jitters but we carried on really well and that’s what matters the most. We peaked at the right times and that’s a quality of good teams,” the India U-19 captain was quoted as saying by the International Cricket Council’s website.
