‘‘We have set extremely high standards for ourselves in the preparation for the World Cup. And we are sticking to them in terms of performance. Sure, it’s huge pressure sometimes for setting such high standards. But that’s the way for us to go.’’ Sounds like Greg Chappell’s words? Well, with these words, the under-19 Indian team coach Venkatesh Prasad summed up the colts’ dream run in the run-up to the World Cup after today’s thumping eight-wicket win against Sri Lanka in the Under-19 Afro-Asia Cup final. Six cruising victories on the trot. Remarkable instances of experimentation and flexibility. A forward-looking think-tank comprising the meticulous Prasad and daring Ravikant Shukla. Performances from all quarters - swashbuckling Gaurav Dhiman, the guile of Piyush Chawla, tenacious Cheteswar Pujara, and dependable Saurav Bandekar. All these performances not only indicate how well the young guns are set up for the junior World Cup next February in Sri Lanka. But they have issued a screaming message to the senior national selectors - that they are ready for boarding Chappell’s Team India. In yet another riveting performance in their fledgling careers, the two biggest heroes of the tournament, Chawla and Dhiman, showed why they are a class apart in the six-nation meet. Man-of-the-final Chawla (5-24) conjured a devastating spell of bowling to pull back the Lankans from 74-0 in eight overs to 212. And Dhiman churned out his third hurricane hundred (105 off 75 balls, 18x4 2x6) in four outings to send the opponents packing with 17.3 overs to spare. Pujara played the perfect foil with an unbeaten 65. Chawla finished with the biggest haul - 15 wickets in five outings.But the biggest surprise was Dhiman who scored 423 runs at a strike-rate of over 120. “Everybody asked me about Piyush, Ravikant, Pujara’s chances of getting picked for the senior team. Well, how many people expected Gaurav to achieve what he did? Right now, he is as big a contender for making it big as Piyush. Or for that matter, even Ravikant for his brilliant captaincy,” asserted the U-19 team coach. After today’s title-winning show, thanks to young turks Chawla, Dhiman and Pujara, Prasad may maintain that the focus as of now is the World Cup. Brief scores: Sri Lanka 212 in 49.1 overs (Sameera Soysa 47, Dimuth Karunaratne 35; Piyush Chawla 5/24, Saurav Bandekar 2/36) lost to India 216/2 in 32.3 overs (Gaurav Dhiman 105, Cheteswar Pujara not out 65).
