BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – His stumping of dangerous opener Rishabh Pant in the opening over of the Youth World Cup final set the tone for West Indies Under-19s eventual victory over India Under-19s, and the region’s capture of its first ever ICC youth title.
And wicketkeeper Tevin Imlach said he had been on the lookout for the dismissal, after realizing the batsman had previously wandered carelessly from his crease.
“The ball before I saw that he had stepped out of his crease and he wasn’t really looking back at the keeper to see if the keeper was trying to run him out or anything so,” the Guyanese gloveman said on his return to the Caribbean this week.
“I decided the next ball if he missed it I would have a throw at the stumps and it worked, luckily for us, because he’s a very dangerous player. After we got his wicket, we gained a lot of momentum from it.”
The dismissal came off the fourth ball of the game at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka and proved crucial.
With Pant going cheaply for one, India’s top order collapsed to leave them 50 for five in the 18th over. They eventually crawled to 145 all out in the 46th over, a total West Indies chased down for the loss of five wickets.
Imlach said dismissals like Pant’s were always at the forefront of his mind.
“I always look for it because you find that batsmen sometimes aren’t conscious of the fact they could [get out] that way. They are really not thinking about it … so it’s something I look to do.”
Imlach also had an impact with the bat for the Young West Indies at the top order where he shared positive opening stands with Gidron Pope.
The right-hander struck exactly 100 in one of the official warm-ups against Scotland, got a couple of 30s in the group stage before scoring a precious half-century against Pakistan Under-19s in the quarter-final.
However, the 19-year-old said he was disappointed he could not convert his starts into bigger scores.
“I was a bit disappointed with my batting because I got starts but I didn’t manage to push on, so I’m a bit disappointed with that but the keeping was not bad. I think I did well,” Imlach said.
He added: “Obviously we’re happy that we won. Bringing pride back to the West Indies is something that you will take with you [for the rest of your career].”