Indian all-rounder Musheer Khan has been the find of the U19 World Cup 2024. Apart from being the second-highest run-scorer of the tournament, Musheer has taken seven wickets with the ball from six games and has showcased his all-round skills. Musheer also bowled an economical spell against Australia in the final of the U19 World Cup and gave away just 45 runs from nine overs and also picked up the wicket of Raf MacMillan.
On the fifth ball of the 39th over, Raf MacMillan played the ball straight back to Musheer Khan, who pouched a brilliant catch in his follow-through. The ball pitched in the line of the stumps and MacMillan was trying to play it straight down the ground. In the end, he ended up giving a catch to Musheer, who dived to his right and grabbed a stunner. MacMillan was dismissed for 2 runs off 8 balls.
Watch: Musheer Khan takes a stunner to dismiss Raf MacMillan
Another crucial wicket for #TeamIndia and this time it's Musheer Khan with the ball! 😁
Australia are 6 down, how many runs will they end up with on board? 👀
Tune in to #INDU19vAUSU19, #U19WorldCupFinal
LIVE NOW | Star Sports Network #Cricket #U19WorldCup2024 pic.twitter.com/Ekc0euopUi— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) February 11, 2024
Apart from Musheer Khan, skipper Uday Saharan, Sachin Dhas and bowler Saumy Pandey are some of the real positives from India from the U19 World Cup. Saharan is currently the top scorer of the tournament and has scored 389 runs from 6 games. Dhas has also scored 294 runs from six matches and has played some brilliant knocks in the whole competition, one such knock came against South Africa in the semi-final wherein he played an innings of 96 runs. Saumy Pandey is also the second-highest wicket-taker of the tournament and has picked up 18 wickets from 6 games.
Indian pacer Raj Limbani was the star of the show for the Indian U19 team in the final against Australia. Limbani picked up 3 wickets by giving away just 38 runs in his spell of ten overs. Australia were only able to put up a score of 253/7 in Benoni and the Indian team would be aiming to chase down the score and win their 6th U19 World Cup.
The Aussies didn’t start well when Sam Konstas was dismissed for a duck by Raj Limbani. Harry Dixon and Hugh Weibgen put up a stand of 78 runs from 109 balls. Dixon got out for 42 runs from 56 balls and was dismissed by Naman Tiwari. Captain Weibgen also fell short of a half-century and got out for 48 runs from 66 balls to Tiwari.
Harjas Singh scored a half-century and played an innings of 55 runs from 64 balls. Harjas smashed 3 fours and 3 sixes during his stay at the crease. While Ryan Hicks scored 20 runs from 25 balls and made an important contribution to the innings, Oliver Peake remained unbeaten on 46 runs from 43 balls and hit 2 fours and 1 six during his stay at the crease.
Apart from the brilliant bowling performance from Raj Limbani and Musheer Khan, Naman Tiwari picked up 2 wickets whereas, Saumy Pandey picked up 1 wicket.
Australia have never defeated India in the final of the U19 World Cup. The Indian team has defeated the Aussies on two occasions which were in 2012 and 2018.
The Indian team is playing its fifth straight final of the U19 World Cup and have won 2 out of the 4 they have played ahead of the final of the 2024 edition of the tournament.