Was there really any competition? Delhi’s Shikhar Dhawan, who seemed to score a century every time he went to the crease, will be named man of the tournament when the ICC U-19 World Cup concludes here tomorrow. Top ICC sources said that, with just the Super League final to be played, Dhawan had taken an unassailable lead in the individual points tally.Dhawan ended the tournament, when India lost to Pakistan in the semi-final, on 11 points. Two Pakistanis — Riaz Afridi and Khalid Latif — who will play the final tomorrow are on second place with eight points, but a player can only earn a maximum two points per match.Three others are on eight points: Farveez Maharoof and Chamith Kulasekara (Sri Lanka) and Alistair Cook of England. One point behind the quintet are Nepal’s Shakti Gauchan and Ireland’s Ian Morgan.An elated Dhawan spoke to The Indian Express late at night. ‘‘I am very happy to have done so well in my very first tour with the Indian team’’, he said. ‘‘Although I didn’t expect to do so well and score so many runs before we left for Dhaka, I was always confident of doing well. I wanted to score runs and see the country win more matches. I have been successful in that direction.’’Dhawan’s 11 points were earned via three man of the match awards — centuries against Scotland, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka — in a tournament where he aggregated 505 runs from seven matches at an average of 84.16 and a strike rate of 93.51.The cricketer, who had returned home along with the other members of the team earlier this week, will receive a 6.5-inch silver replica of the World Cup trophy valued at over 2,500 pounds.Talking about his failure to get a big score in the crucial game against Pakistan in the semifinal, the Delhi left-hand opener said: ‘‘I felt sad that I couldn’t come out with a big score. Dukh to hua.’’On his immediate plans, Shikhar said he would be attending his Sonnet Club nets at Venkateswara College from next week. ‘‘As there are no local tournaments in which the club is participating at present, I won’t playing any match for the moment,’’ he said.
