The Indian Under-19 team playing in the ongoing World Cup limited Japan to 41, the tournament’s joint second-lowest total, before winning their second group A match comfortably by 10 wickets at Bloemfontein.
However, more than their performance, the Indian colts won the hearts of the cricket world with their heartwarming gesture. After their victory, the India U19 captain Priyam Garg called his Japanese counterpart and the rest of the team for a photo op.
The boys in Blue’s touching gesture exemplified the spirit of cricket at its best and it did no go unnoticed as ICC shared the picture on their official World Cup Twitter handle.
#SpiritOfCricket pic.twitter.com/L3GHkZPyNJ
— Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) January 21, 2020
Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Dhruv Jurel who was celebrating his 19th birthday on the matchday was also seen taking a selfie with Japan’s birthday-boy Kento Ota Dobell.
A birthday selfie from the birthday boys 🎂🤳 #U19CWC | #INDvJPN | #FutureStars pic.twitter.com/5xBl9yyZUR
— Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) January 21, 2020
In the match, Japan, who are appearing in their first-ever ICC tournament, witnessed five of their batsmen being sent home for a duck. Ravi Bishnoi and Kartik Tyagi ripped through their batting line up as they took four and three wickets respectively.
NS Date, D Sahoo, K Takahashi, Ishaan Fartyal and A Thurgate were the five back-to-back batsmen who walked towards the way of the pavilion for zero. Bishnoi was the star of the pack for the Indian bowlers as he returned with the figure of 4/5. Kartik earned the numbers of 3/10, while Akah Singh took the remaining two wickets for 11 runs.
Chasing the modest total, the Indian openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and Kumar Kushagra made sure that India win the game without much trouble. They scored the winning total in less than five overs.