Planet "M"

South Africa U19s dominated the tournament in every department of the game.

Clyde Fortuin, the wicket-keeper, made 20 dismissals with the gloves: an absolute impossible figure to match for his counterparts in this edition.

On the other hand, pacer Kagiso Rabada's 6-wicket haul vs. Australia in the semis brought up tournament's best bowling figure in an innings. He remained the second highest wicket-taker this year, whilst captain Aiden Markram was adjudged as the player of the tournament.

For more stats and analysis, look out the infographic below:

The South Africa players celebrate after winning the Under-19 World Cup in Dubai

Right from the start of the World Cup where both India and Australia faced early defeats in warm-up matches; the tournament kept its viewers and fans alike entertained till the very end.

From title triumphs to big upsets and close finish to that hat-trick – let’s check out this season’s top five moments:

Often remarked as the ‘chokers’, South African U19s Captain Aiden Markram would always be remembered for his team’s heroics in the finals yesterday.

South Africa managed an easy victory to lift its first ever ICC Trophy by defeating Pakistan by 6 wickets in a low scoring match. It was the youngest side of this tournament that haven’t had any player with previous World Cup experience.

Since the 2010 ICC Twenty20 World Cup, Afghanistan has been a familiar name in international cricket circuit.

Their constant improvement and ability to excel has become a norm by now. Afghanistan’s league match against Australia where they registered a 36-run victory – by wrapping up the Australian innings in 48 overs – speaks the volume of talent this team possess. They became the second only non-Test playing nation after Nepal to make it to the QFs.

It just takes an over to become Yuvraj Singh – the big hitter. And a complete opposite playing-role to become Kuldeep Yadav – the hat-trick boy!

Hailing from UP and an admirer of Shane Warne, the 19-year-old became an overnight hero after his three wickets from three-successive deliveries against Scotland in a group match. Although, he was consistent with the ball even in the warm-up matches and has been in the headlines courtesy his left arm spin action aka the rare Chinaman breed of bowlers.

He scalped 14 wickets in the tournament and remained joint-second with South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada.

And why is it so, proved yet again.

Pakistan’s batting has been their major problem, just like it’s a tradition with them. Apart from their first league match against India, they did win all the matches, including the warm-ups. Still, the runners-up of 2014. How intriguing, isn’t it?!

Their shaky character in big matches often produces close results. Like what happened in the semi-final where they defeated England in the last over but lost the finals to South Africa after four days!

What it meant to host a mega event like World Cup, especially when you are not among the top-teams, ask to the UAE cricket administration. Being the newest host of an ICC event, UAE is better known as a second home to Pakistan and Afghanistan national cricket teams.

Although, the Sharjah Cricket Stadium has its own reputation including Sachin’s ‘Desert Storm’ against Australia in 1997-98; it has staged 215 ODIs – the most by any ground till date.

It took South Africa to a prominent stage for hosting mega sports event after the 2010 FIFA World Cup. And, who knows, maybe the UAE is the next-in-line for the IPL.

The other two Quarter-finalists would be decided by today’s Group League matches from Group A and Group B.

As the tournament is ideally famous for pioneering young cricketers, and history books have recorded many examples of it, let’s dig out the hat-tricks of the U19 World Cup so far.

Belongs to a rare breed of cricketers – Left arm spin or Chinaman, this 19-year-old has been a hot topic of discussion everywhere for a while. In a group match against Scotland U19, he grabbed three wickets from three consecutive deliveries; thus, acclaimed the title of first indian to have a hat-trick in Under-19 WC history.

The UP born dismissed Nick Farrar, Kyle Stirling and Alex Baum to achieve this feat; his bowling card reads: 4/28 with an economy of 2.80.

Coming from the Brett Lee’ hometown – Sydney, Australia – Harry Conway did an absolute blunder for Nepal U19 in the 2012 World Cup. The 6.5 feet tall was well supported by fellow-bowlers to ensure a commendable win of Australia by 212 runs - restricting Nepal below 25 overs.

The then 19-year-old bagged wickets of Pradeep Airee, Naresh Budayair and Prithu Baskota by shattering their off-stump in quick successions. He finished with 3/15 from six overs.

An admirer of Dale Steyn and Wasim Akram, Kamran Islam Rabbi of Bangladesh played a pivotal role, alongside his team-mate Alauddin Babu, in the Plate final of the ICC U19 World Cup 2010 against Ireland. Defending a marginal total of 307 runs, Tigers wrapped Irish innings in the 39th over, won by 195 runs.

A frontline pacer of his side, Kamran took only 4.5 overs to complete his hat-trick – wrapping the tail of Irish-innings, dismissing Shane Getkate, Eddie Richardson and Craig Young. Kamran wishes to become a forest officer, if he can’t excel as a professional cricketer.

Note: List compelled from the match data available on the net.

Be it Federer vs. Nadal in Tennis or Manchester United vs. Manchester City in Football or Saina Nehwal vs. the China wall equation in Badminton or India vs Pakistan in cricket. Loyalty, possessiveness or devotion: however you term it; there lies something to catch your attention with, no matter how uniformly busy or awry you are.

But can you pinpoint what exactly that thing is?

 

Answer, certainly, is NO. You may say it’s the dominance, game plan, ability or team combination. Though, that is not the case here. Neither the statistics nor the trivia has something to do with it.

You may travel effortlessly to cheer your team and even prioritize match highlights over studies. Or, worst, take sick leave from your office. But is that all to watch your team playing? Nothing else to mention about?

Agree that victory and defeat does matter. And it somehow has an impact on us, too. But isn’t that a personal touch you associate with them in every game?

Doesn't that Javed Miandad’s last ball six off Chetan Sharma in 1986 bother you, even today? Remember Shanthakumaran Sreesanth's catch at short fine-leg to dismiss Misbah-ul-Haq off the bowling of Joginder Sharma in the 2007 T20 WC Final? And how crucial was Sachin Tendulkar for both the teams in that tensed semi-final of the 2011 World Cup?

There’s a charm in Gautam Gambhir-Umar Akmal and Harbhajan Singh-Shoaib Akhtar verbal fights. The pace of Imran Khan, Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram on which a generation of Indian batting danced on. Sehwag’s reply, in context with Sachin Tendulkar and Shoaib Akhtar, to Shah Rukh Khan at a sports event: “Beta, beta hota hai…aur baap, baap” proclaimed the intensity of Indo-Pak series.

It’s the ‘I can relate’ kind of nervousness that draws you in. It’s not ‘winning with a margin’ that lets you shout out loud, but how graciously the opponent is defeated.

It’s a different sort of enthusiasm when India plays against Pakistan. It’s a completely different ball game irrespective of the format or the age group.

The last time these two met was in the U19 Asia Cup final at Sharjah this year, where India registered a comprehensive victory by 40 runs. So far, they have played seven matches against each other in the U19 World Cup, with India winning 2 of them.

While India lost both its warm-up matches against South Africa and Sri Lanka by 5 wickets, Pakistan managed to register comfortable victories against UAE and Australia.

The Vijay Zol-led Indian side will begin their U-19 campaign against Pakistan on February 15, 2014. Let’s see how these young guns take to the big occasion.

Players, teams, captain or the venue: let’s check out what’s new in this edition of U19 World Cup. 

1. Qualification criteria:

The qualifications for the Affiliates and Associates countries took place through regional tournaments. Unlike the previous editions, the champion teams from the regional tournaments got direct entries to qualify for the World Cup. By the rule, Namibia, Scotland, Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea and Canada secured their place from Africa, Europe, Asia, East-Asia Pacific and Americas region respectively. 

UAE’s Mohammad Hamid, aged 20.307 years, becomes the senior-most player of this tournament, whereas Afghanistan’s Shahidullah becomes this edition’s youngest player at an age of 15.6 years.

Among the 8 of the 16 captains playing in the tournament who have prior world cup experience, Canada’s Nitish Kumar stands ahead of all with the status of an ODI cricketer. Apart from him, Sami Aslam (Pakistan), Vijay Zol (India), Kusal Mendis (Sri Lanka), Will Rhodes (England) and Gerhard Erasmus (Namibia) have all made waves. Bangladesh’ Mehedy Hasan (16.110 years) and UAE’ Rohit Singh (20.113 years) are the youngest and oldest captains in the tournament respectively.

Australia and India are the most successful teams in the history of the U-19 world cup with 3-titles each. The team with the lowest average age is Bangladesh (17.411 years). Playing their ninth World cup this year, the Tigers holds the repute of being the quarter-finalists in 2012. Canada, making its fourth world cup appearance, sits at the other end of the equation, with an average age of 19.237 to be the oldest team of this edition.

UAE got a direct entry in the 2014 U19 World Cup to complete the Group D which previously had NewZealand, England and Sri Lanka. It’s the first major ICC event for the United Arab Emirates as host. UAE happens to be the 7th different venue for an Under-19 world cup.

Saying that, it would be interesting to see how the debutant UAE would utilize this one-of-a-kind opportunity both at the administrative and grass-root level.