C365 Player of the Week – Unmukt Chand

Cricket365
August 28, 2012

India captain Unmukt Chand may have led his side to the Under 19 World Cup title on Sunday, but his greatest achievement to date is becoming the youngest cricketer to be awarded our Player of the Week gong.

India captain Unmukt Chand may have led his side to the Under-19 World Cup title on Sunday, but his greatest achievement to date is becoming the youngest cricketer to be awarded our Player of the Week gong.

All and sundry have been praising the teenager to high heaven this week after his 111 not out against Australia in the final, and who are we to argue with Ian Chappell and Sanjay Bhardwaj?

The latter, India's coach during the tournament, went so far as to say: "Unmukt is certainly more talented than what Gautam (Gambhir) was at his age. While Unmukt is a mixture of talent and hard work, Gautam was all sweat."

Well, okay then. When will he be drafted into the senior side, given the retirements of VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid? Virat Kohli, another former teen skipper to lead his side to the World Cup trophy, may have to watch his back.

Snark aside, Unmukt's innings was truly a wonderful thing to behold. He 'carried his bat' against the Aussies, and needed only 130 deliveries in his knock to help chase down a big target of 225 at the Tony Ireland Stadium, where batting had been tough all tournament.

At one stage India were well behind the run rate on 97 for four, but Chand kept his head and made sure Smit Patel kept his at the other end, and they put on a partnership of 130 to win the game with 14 balls remaining.

Honourable mentions must go to Anamul Haque of Bangladesh, who was the tournament's top-scorer by nearly 100 runs, and the only player to make more than 300 runs overall, as well as England's Reece Topley, who took 19 wickets at an average of 9.10.

<b>Lindsay du Plessis</b>