Ahead of the 2024 ICC U-19 World Cup final, which is set to take place on Sunday, February 11, at Sahara Park Willowmoore Cricket Stadium in Benoni, Australia’s right-arm bowler Tom Straker has issued a modest warning to India.
Straker claimed that excitement surrounded Australia’s victory as they advanced to their first Under-19 World Cup final in six years. Notably, he picked up six wickets for 24 and was named Player of the Match in their semifinal one-wicket victory over Pakistan.
“People were still quite enthusiastic. “We’ve had our fun, but it has to stop now,” we said at that point. We still have to win the grand final. We just said, ‘We didn’t come here to win the semi-final; we came here to win the final,'” Straker told cricket.com.au after their brief talk.
“The guys were raving about the TV in our viewing area, and while the pundits were talking about it, I thought it was a good idea to film it for future reference, so I wasn’t too concerned about it. Though it doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things, it’s a fairly proud moment,” he continued.
After being removed in the span of four balls, the 18-year-old’s incredible bowling performance nearly turned into agony. Mahli Beardman was also ousted in this manner. With 16 runs, Callum Vidler and Raf MacMillan were the last two to win. He said that Vidler’s batting was good for a No. 11 and that they were confident they could get enough runs to win.
“Everyone’s just staring at each other, saying, ‘Oh no.'” We were confident because Vidler bats well for us and has rescued the day previously, and his hitting is not the worst for a No. 11. Everyone just went crazy when we hit the winning runs,” he continued.
Tom Straker, also known as “Monster Truck,” continued by stating that he thinks Australia’s bowling assault is promising because it has scared a few teams in the current season and will do the same against India.
We possess a respectable bowling attack. Throughout this tournament, we’ve scared a few teams, and ideally, in the final, we do the same to India. This pitch is also a little bit bumpy. We use our bouncers a lot, as you have seen throughout the tournament, so it will be a part of our strategy. Since we’re Australian fast bowlers, of course we love a bumper, so I’m sure there will be plenty of those. All the boys here, especially Mahli and Vidler, enjoy a bumper,” the 18-year-old continued.
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