On This Day In 2012: Unmukt Chand Led India Beat Australia to Claim U-19 Cricket World Cup Title

Unmukt Chand led India to secure their third U-19 title. India defeated Australia at Townsville twelve years back on this day (August 26). Unmukt made a crucial contribution to the historic win. The right-handed batter slammed a brilliant unbeaten century in the summit clash where India registered a six-wicket victory. Before Unmukt, Mohammad Kaif and Virat Kohli had won the U-19 World Cup as an Indian captain in 2000 and 2008 respectively.

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In the 2012 final, India won the toss and asked their opponents to bat first. Sandeep Sharma picked up the first wicket, dismissing Australia’s Jimmy Peirson on the fourth delivery of the opening over.

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Another Australia opener, Cameron Bancroft also failed to survive long and fell victim to Sharma.

Australia lost two more wickets in the first 15 overs, with Meyrick Buchanan and Kurtis Patterson returning scoring 12 and 16 respectively. That is when captain William Bosisto began the rescue operation, pairing up with Travis Head. The duo racked up 65 runs together before Head was run out at 37.

William Bosisto then joined hands with Ashton Turner and stitched a 93-run partnership. Turner missed out on a half-century by just seven runs while the Australia skipper remained unbeaten on 87 off 120 balls. His inning-reviving knock featured six boundaries.

The Australia U-19 team capped off their innings with 225 runs, losing eight wickets. Sandeep Sharma finished as the best bowler for India with a four-wicket haul. Ravikant Singh and Baba Aparajith picked up one wicket each.

India had a disastrous start to the chase as Mark Steketee dismissed opener Prashant Chopra for a duck. Baba Aparajith came out to bat next and scored 33.

The next two batters—Hanuma Vihari and Viijay Zol— returned with one-digit scores but Unmukt Chand had held the wicket at the other end. He hit seven boundaries and six maximums during his 130-ball innings.

Wicketkeeper-batter Smit Patel also demonstrated his A-game. He chipped in with an unbeaten knock of 62 runs. Along with Chand, Patel sailed India across the victory line in 47.4 overs.

The Indian captain was named the player of the match for his match-winning hundred.