Cricket

U19 World Cup: Unsold in WPL auction, Gongadi Trisha stands tall for India

Telengana allrounder emerges as Player of the Tournament as who’s who of Indian cricket shower them with praise after one-sided win helps them retain title

Gongadi Trisha, Player of the Tournament, scored the first century of the tournament
Gongadi Trisha, Player of the Tournament, scored the first century of the tournament ICC

Gongadi Trisha, a young upcoming talent from Telengana, went unsold in the recent auction for Women’s Premier League (WPL). After her Player of the Tournament show in the Under-19 Women’s World Cup in Malaysia, where India defended their title with an emphatic nine-wicket win over South Africa, the five franchises may be regretting their decision.

 Trisha, the 19-year-old who finished as the tournament’s top run-scorer with 309 runs from seven innings, came up with an allround performance in the final at the Bayuemas Oval in Kuala Lumpur today. She scored an unbeaten 44 off 33 balls and finished with figures of 3/15 as India put the icing on the cake of a thoroughly dominant campaign.

 ‘’I have no words to say. I would like to dedicate this award to my father because he is here. I don’t think I would have been here without him,’’ Trisha said at the presentation. Much as the triumph been a result of a great team effort, Trisha grabbed the limelight by becoming the first centurion in the tournament with an unbeaten 110 off 59 balls when they steamrolled Canada a few days back.

‘’I want to play for my country and win more matches. Winning this again is simply superb,” said the girl from Bhadrachalam, who was shifted to Hyderabad to enable her pursue a career in cricket. She recorded the second-best batting average of the tournament while also hitting the most fours and the second-most sixes.

 Trisha backed it up with nine wickets with her off breaks, returning best figures of three for six in her record-breaking performance against Scotland.

 England’s Grace Scrivens had won the Player of the Tournament honour in the previous edition of the ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup. Scrivens was recognised after making 293 runs and taking nine wickets as she skippered England to the 2023 final.

The Who’s Who of Indian cricket – from Sourav Ganguly to Rishabh Pant – were effusive in their praise on the triumph on social media. TV pundit Harsha Bhogle summed up their campaign aptly with the post on his X handle: ‘’If you want to know what dominating a tournament means, look at what our U19 women’s cricket team has just achieved. Played at a different level to everyone else. Excited to see what the future hold in women’s cricket in India.’’

One-sided final

Chasing 83 to win, India made a confident start through openers Trisha and Kamalini Gunalan. They put on a 36-run stand for the opening wicket before G Kamalini was dismissed by Kayla Reyneke.

Sanika Chalke joined Gongadi Trisha in the middle as India continued to score freely and finished the powerplay with the score reading 44/1. Trisha, in particular, was proving to be hard to contain for the South African bowlers while Chalke also kept the scoreboard ticking with the occasional boundary.

With 12 needed off the last 10 overs, the pair decided to end the run chase in a hurry by hitting a couple fours in the 11th over before Sanika hit the winning runs with another boundary in the next over to guide India to victory.

Brief Scores: South Africa 82 all out in 20 overs (Mieke van Voorst 23, Gongadi Trisha 3/15) lost to India 84/1 in 11.2 overs (Trisha 44 not out, Kayla Reyneke 1/14) by nine wickets.

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