Potchefstroom: India has been waiting for this moment for a long time, said chief coach Nooshin Al Khadeer Sunday after the U-19 women’s cricket team lifted its maiden ICC trophy, adding that the T20 world cup triumph underlines the country’s enormous depth of talent.
The Indian women’s team Sunday lifted its first-ever ICC trophy with a seven-wicket win over England in the U-19 T20 World Cup final.
“It is a fabulous feeling. This is the feeling we have been waiting for very long. This is the first time we won the cup and it has come with the U-19 kids. Just shows the kind of depth we have and what is there for us in the future,” she said after the match.
India had lost to Australia by seven wickets in the Super Six stage, their only defeat in the tournament.
“The most special thing is the belief. I knew they had a bad game against Australia, but the way they have gathered and played there after, we kept it very simple and we thought we would just play proper and simple cricket and we would achieve this.
“From the National anthem and till the time we won we had goosebumps. I personally realise and understand how special this is for us,” she said.
“To live it from the young girls it’s commendable. We have been waiting very long for a cup. We have a good future back in India. God has been kind and I’m keeping it simple.”
India skipper Shafali Verma credited the support staff for all the support.
“The way all the girls are performing and backing each other, so happy. Incredible feeling. Thanks to the staff, the way they have been backing us everyday and telling us that we are here for the cup and because of them we are here,” she said during the post-match presentation ceremony.
“The players have been backing me a lot. Thanks to BCCI for giving me this beautiful team and really happy for winning the cup.”
While Shafali had a modest outing with the bat, fellow opener Shweta Sehrawat emerged as the highest run-getter with 297 runs at an average of 99.
“She (Shweta Sehrawat) has been excellent and has followed all the plans from the staff,” Shafali said.
“Not just her, Archana, Soumya and I can’t really take the names but they all have been incredible.”
The other senior player in the team, Richa Ghosh said the triumph will give a boost to the senior team to go for the title in next month’s T20 World Cup, also in South Africa.
“It is a superb feeling. I have been waiting for this since U-19 days for so many years. All the players have a good positive energy, I really enjoyed with them and we will take the momentum in the senior world cup,” she said.
“We are looking forward to that World Cup also, if we can win 2 World Cups, it will be superb.”
Player of the Match Titas Sadhu, who returned with superb figures of 2 for 6 in her four overs, said “It’s really surreal. Have been looking forward to this day for a long time.
“We had a plan in our mind, and thankfully we executed what we planned. The spinners backed up really well. We have played 2 matches and watched all the games that happened here, and had a pretty good idea where to bowl.”
England skipper Grace Scrivens blamed the batting unit for the loss.
“We were gutted, our batting let us down. We were so good throughout the tournament going hard at the bowlers, we tried that today but didn’t quite come off,” said Scrivens, who won the Player of the Tournament for amassing 293 runs and taking nine wickets.
“All these girls are unbelievable and I absolutely loved captaining them. They (England senior team) made the trip here, awesome and really unbelievable.”
PTI
