Fantasy Cricket
Fantasy Cricket is a genre of Fantasy Sports. In this game, you compete with online players on a virtual platform. The points of these players matter on the actual performance of the real match. To win the tournaments, one has to focus on scoring as high as he can and gain the highest rank on the leaderboard. You bid on the performance of the players before the match actually starts. Points are earned if the lineup and the same players perform well in real life. If a player scores a half-century, century, takes a couple of wickets, etc, the points keep on increasing accordingly. It is based somewhat based on luck and how you manage your team.
Fantasy sports are therefore also known as the game of skill. A slight change in the order of batting or bowling can make a huge difference. Each individual has to play very strategically to win the game.
History of Under 19 World Cup
The Under 19 World Cup is organized by ICC which stands for International Cricket Council. It is an international cricket tournament. The World Cup was played amongst 8 teams in 1988 when it initially began. Today, it hosts 16 teams from all over the globe who compete to win the World Cup. The World Cup is a biennial event, which means it takes place every two years. ICC Cricket World Cup has 11 permanent teams contending along with 5 regional qualifiers. The Under 19 ICC Cricket World Cup was known as the Youth World Cup when it initially began. It was then not conducted for a period of 10 years. Then in 1998, it was renamed to the Under 19 ICC Cricket World Cup and since then has been conducted every alternate year.
Recently, Bangladesh won 2020 Under 19 ICC World Cup for the very first time defeating the defending champions India in South Africa. The youngsters gave their best in both batting as well as bowling. Ravi Bishnoi led the tournament with 17 wickets and Yashasvi Jaiswal scored 400 runs which were the most by any batsman in the U19 ICC Cricket tournament.
India’s run at the ICC World Cup Title
India has always been very successful when it comes to Cricket. India has won the Cricket World Cup for 4 times which is the most in the history of the tournament. Due to their never-ending passion, the drive within and the ability to play under stress, India has dominated their opponents most of the time and they have the most winning rate which is about 77%. The Under 19 Indian Cricket team has discovered immense talents from all corners of the country. Even though players at such a young age are raw and immature, they have to play under a lot of pressure which is probably the first time they face such an extreme challenge.
In the 2018 U19 World Cup, Prithvi Shaw led the team to a confident victory against the Australians to win the 4th title for India. In the 2020 U19 WC, India had a great run. They dominated their particular group stage by topping their group and qualifying for the quarterfinals. The team is currently captained by Priyam Garg and is coached by Paras Mhambrey. With no scarcity and dearth of talent in the country, many top-notch individuals excel at this sport and become very successful. Well, it’s safe to say we have found a couple of potential superstars in the making after the heart wrenching and a very captivating final. It indeed was disappointing watching India lose especially after such an amazing run in the tournament.
YOUNG SUPERSTARS IN THE MAKING
Each player had a strategy of success. Prithvi Shaw would wake up at 4:30 a.m. to go for his practice which was 70 kilometers away from his residence. He has proved that it takes a lot of dedication, hard work, and perseverance to make it to be a part of the U19 World Cup team.
Priyam Garg, the current captain of the team is an 18-year-old who is a right-handed batsman with a very bright future ahead of him. He plays for Uttar Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy as well as the Vijay Hazare Trophy. When Priyam Garg was 15 years old, he stood tall and confident facing one of the best swing bowlers India has ever produced- Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Priyam had to overcome many difficulties in life. His father could not afford to buy a television so he would skip classes in order to study the master blaster Sachin Tendulkar’s game and footwork. He is indeed a prodigy and is meant to play Cricket. Back in 2018, he missed his chance of getting selected for the 2018 U19 World Cup.
Garg scored 867 runs in 12 matches averaging about 66.69 runs per game in the tournament. It includes 2 centuries with the best of 206. In the IPL 2020 auction, he was bought for 1.9 Crores by the Sunrisers Hyderabad. Yashasvi Jaiswal, the young boy from Uttar Pradesh deserves all the success he has had. He has seen the utmost poverty throughout his life. He struggled to fetch 2 meals for himself and sold Panipuri for a living. Recently he was selected by Rajasthan Royals for 2.4 crores in the IPL 2020 Auction. He was the opener for India and played a very vital and crucial knock against Pakistan in the semi-finals of the U19 ICC Cricket World Cup. He broke multiple records in List A cricket and was one of the top 5 scorers at the 2019-20 Vijay Hazare trophy with 564 runs in 6 matches averaging a whopping 112.8.
POST GROUP STAGE
QUARTER FINALS
Post dominating Sri Lanka, Japan, and New Zealand in the group stage, India qualified for the Super League Quarter Finals at the 2020 U19 Cricket World Cup.India faced the young kangaroos, the Australians. Yashasvi Jaiswal was full of energy despite the Indian batsmen struggling in the beginning. Due to a couple of poor shot selection by the Indian openers, India was in a very unsure situation as they were 144/6. Ravi Bishnoi and Atharva Ankolekar added a score of 61. They helped India get past the 200 mark. India put up a decent defendable score of 233 on the deck. The Australians strived against the Indian bowling action but fell short as they all got out at 159 in 43.3 overs. Kartik Tyagi was awarded man of the match for his amazing spell of 24-4 in 8 overs at an economical rate of 3 runs per over. India won the game and qualified for the semi-final action against Pakistan.
SEMI FINALS
India vs Pakistan has always been a very exciting match-up in any sport and any event even though it always ends up in a very sombre note for one team. The Indian side was in it since the beginning of the match whereas Pakistan was struggling to execute their ideas with both bat as well as the bowl. India had won the past 3 encounters when they faced Pakistan in the U19 ICC Cricket World Cup, viz in 2012, 2014, and 2018.
Once again India was bold, confident, and ready to face the fast bowlers of Pakistan. The toss took place and Pakistan chose to bat first. Indian bowlers were lively and were tearing apart partnerships. The Indian bowling attack managed to stop the Pakistan side in 43.1 overs with a score of 172/10. The Indian bowlers had played their part and successfully dominated their way through their offense.
Indian openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and Divyansh Saxena stepped into the field and took charge. They both helped India score 176 in 35.2 with no loss of wicket. It was an embarrassing and disappointing defeat for Pakistan. Jaiswal was named the player of the match.
Semi-final 2 was between Bangladesh and New Zealand in which The Tigers won by 6 wickets. The final was set to take place between India and Bangladesh in Senwes Park, Potchefstroom, South Africa. Under 19 Cricket is meant to be fun. The adrenaline is always high, maturity amongst players is much lesser and teams lose matches when they had it in their bags. India had seen the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sudeep Tyagi blossoming in the entire tournament. The young talent of Bangladesh was ready to bring forth their abilities and made giant strides forward. Bangladesh was an underdog throughout the season. India had made the finals 4 times out of 5 whereas the tigers were new entrants.
THE FINALS
The Tigers were ready to exploit the wet pitch as it had rained the past day. Bangladesh had won the toss and opted to bowl first. The Boys in the Blue were ready and confident as the two openers walked to the crease. The tigers bowled aggressively and fearlessly in the first over as it was maiden over. They bowled beautifully right on the mark. The Indian openers were having a tough time. Rakibul Hasan’s spin troubled India as well. India’s best batsman, Yashasvi Jaiswal, had to play like the anchor when Divyansh Saxena got out for 2 runs in 17 balls. Right when India was getting hold of the moment, the 94 run second wicket partnership was broken by Tanzim Hasan Sakib. After the dismissal of Jaiswal, the Indians got out within the next 21 runs where a loss of 7 wickets took place.
The Tigers had set the target to be a mere 178. Odds were against the Indians to win the match. Since the beginning of the game, Bangladesh looked like a better team with great chemistry throughout. The pressure of defending such a low target was virtually visible. Young bowlers were nervous about their approach in such a tense situation and gave away a couple of extras in the beginning. Sushant Mishra had a horrible time bowling and got a warning bowling beamers.
Priyam Garg opted Ravi Bishnoi to bowl a couple of spin deliveries. Bangladesh was at a stagnant score of 50/0. On the spur of the moment, the Tigers struggled to face Bishnoi’s googlies and found themselves at a mere score of 65/4. Then the Bangladesh skipper, Akbar Ali walked in to bat and he swiftly without any pressure knocked down balls for one’s and two’s. Ravi Bishnoi continued to surprise batsmen with his googlies as they were unable to create contact with the ball. Soon clouds started coming back and a little bit of rainfall had started. The moment was tense for both the nations. The boys in the blue were eager to get back on the field and fetch a wicket or two. Akbar Ali realized that they were ahead of the projected score to win by the DLS method and played safely. Bangladesh won the game and the title for the very first time in the history of the U19 ICC Cricket World Cup. Multiple player records were broken and created in the tournament. Each team gave their best but as usual, there was only one champion and Bangladesh was the most deserving one.
The Boys in the Blues were sorely disappointed with their performance in the finals but they know they gave their best throughout the tournament. The pressure is very high when you play at the International level and they have made the entire country made. All these young players have a very successful and fruitful future awaits. They work harder than the average 18-19-year-old and most of them have seen poverty themselves. Success is sweet, no doubt but it takes a lot of time, dedication along with hard work and perseverance to master anything you do. These young sportsmen are waiting to prove themselves in the upcoming IPL season so they can get a chance to play for the Indian Cricket team.
