Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Manish Pandey, Iqbal Abdulla, Surabh Tiwary were some of the stars in the India’s U-19 team of 2008 that went to Malaysia. Who would have guessed that the captain of India Under-19 in 2008 would go on to become one of the best batsman ever to play cricket. But that World Cup of 2008 was a revelation for Indian cricket. India realized the potential of so many players in that tournament. This is clear from the fact that the players who were part of that team in 2008 are still playing cricket at the highest level in some form or other.
Even the South African team had some stars of the future. Wayne Parnell was the captain and apart from him, Rilee Rossouw, Reza Hendricks were some better known players who were present in the South Africa U-19 team.
India came in to the final after defeating Kane Williamson’s New Zealand side while South Africa eased their way past Pakistan. South Africa won the toss and quite rightly chose to field first as there was speculation of rain-fall. India faltered for a score of 159 runs, where Tanmay Srivastava was the highest run scorer with 46 runs. It started raining after the first innings ended and fortunately for India, the target for South Africa became a little tricky. As per the Duckworth & Lewis method, SA required 116 runs to win from 25 overs. Ravindra Jadeja and Ajitesh Argal were the pick of the bowlers who took India home.
Watch the highlights of the match here:
Click here to get the complete scorecard of the final in 2008. Malaysia became the party center for the new U-19 champions, India. It was the second time India had won this coveted competition. Previously, India had won it under the leadership of Mohammed Kaif.