India won their fourth Under-19 World Cup title on Saturday after beating Australia by eight wickets in the final at Mount Maunganui in New Zealand.
Opener Manjot Kalra smacked an unbeaten 101 in even time as India easily disposed of Australia’s total of 216 with more than 11 overs to spare.
The opener’s century included eight fours and three sixes, and he was well supported by wicketkeeper Harvik Desai, who was 47 not out when he finished the match with a boundary.
The pair put on 89 for the third wicket, while Prithvi Shaw scored 29 at the top of the innings and Shubman Gill added 31.
The Sunday editions of Indian newspapers were magnanimous in their praise of the Rahul Dravid-coached side, with most newspapers splashing images of the win on their front pages. Here is how the Indian press reacted.
The Times of India published a box on the title win as one of its front-page leads, titled, “When the world became their cup”.
“On Cloud 19!” exclaimed the Times of India on its first sports page. “India’s Under-19 cricketers on Saturday lifted a record fourth U-19 World Cup trophy after an eight-wicket rout of Australia in the final, bringing to a dream end a perfect campaign in which they thoroughly dominated every other team in the tournament,” the report said. “The win also gave former India captain Rahul Dravid the biggest success of his coaching career.”
The Sunday Express had a front-page report – with a rather straight headline – from Mount Maunganui about how the team celebrated the victory and how coach Rahul Dravid, typically, asked them to not dirty the dressing room and move the party outside.
The Sunday Express’s sports section had a more colourful headline: “Under-19, over the moon”.
The Hindustan Times front page ran a similar headline to the Indian Express:
In its sports section, HT listed out 19 reasons why India conquered the world, including the “legend of Rahul Dravid”.
“Hitting a 4: Boys to men”, said DNA’s headline in the middle of its front page.
“As has been the case throughout the 2018 ICC U-19 World Cup, India’s dominance put even the law of averages to shame, with the team thrashing Australia in the final in Tauranga on Saturday to clinch the title and script a perfect climax to their unbeaten run in the tournament,” wrote Chander Shekhar Luthra.
The English daily even ran a staff report in the sports section, with the headline “Boys conquer world, again”. The report said that “Prithvi Shaw and his young troops showed maturity beyond their ages, thrashing Australia by eight wickets to gift India a record fourth ICC U19 World Cup title and underline the fact that India has the best junior cricketing setup in the world”.
The Mumbai Mirror went with a rather expected “Students of the year”.
The New Sunday Express had a photo of Shaw lifting the trophy right next to its masthead. Below that was a report with the headline, “Shaw & Co paint fresh graffiti on the Wall”. Note the capital W in Wall.
The report noted how the U19 players were referring to coach Dravid by his first name. “Kids don’t call their coach by his name. But then, these boys are different, like the coach,” the report said.
The lead sports page at the back of the newspaper had another report, headlined, “Understudies in Wall of Fame”, again a reference to Dravid. The report noted Dravid’s message to the boys after winning the World Cup.
“Fourth title – conquered the world,” said the Sunday Navbharat Times’s front-page headline.
NBT’s headline on its sports page was a lot more clever, with a pun on Manjot Kalra’s first name.
“The stage was set and everyone’s attention was on Prithvi Shaw and Shubman Gill,” the report said. “But the showstopper was Delhi’s Manjot Kalra.”
“Young India’s royalty,” was Amar Ujala’s front-page headline.
“Dravid’s brave-hearts are the champions,” was the headline of its report on the sports page.
The Telegraph carried a tiny staff report at the bottom left of its front page, headlined, “Dravid’s dynamos deliver”.
It’s main sports page at the back was dedicated to the win.
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