Niki Prasad believes India’s next generation can create a winning culture after captaining her side to the defence of their ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup title.
Gongadi Trisha starred with bat and ball as India secured a nine-wicket win over South Africa in the final in Kuala Lumpur.
“Coming into the tournament, I said we are here to dominate and make sure India stays on top,” she said. “We are going to create a legacy of winning this tournament and other ICC tournaments for India.
“I am feeling really happy that I am right here standing as a world champion and helping India to stay on top. It is a special moment, playing in this World Cup and doing this for India.”
Trisha, who finished as Player of the Tournament, took three for 15 to help bowl South Africa out for 82 at the Bayuemas Oval.
She then led the run-chase, hitting eight boundaries in a fluent 44 not out, to steer India to victory with 52 balls to spare.
Trisha was one of several players in the current squad who were also part of the 2023 side, but Prasad missed that tournament due to injury. She said missing out helped make this victory taste extra sweet.
“We all just tried to stay calm and stick to doing what our job is,” the 19-year-old added. We won the toss; we would have definitely chosen to bat but throughout this tournament we have bowled well. Nevertheless, we wanted to go out and show what we could do.
“All of the credit goes to our support staff for making this possible and really nurturing the young players.”
South Africa elected to bat, but they struggled to gain a foothold in the final and lost regular wickets.
Mieke van Voorst top-scored with 23 and their 82 total was always likely to prove tough to defend.
“There are a lot of emotions in the team right now,” said captain Kayla Reyneke.
“We never go down without a fight, that is the South African spirit and the phoenix inside of us. It will always be in our hearts, and we will come back stronger, this is motivation for us to come back stronger in 2027.
“India played a really good game, hats off to them. We knew they were going to come hard at us. They are something to look up to.
“The support has bene crazy. I could not have asked for it. I know we are not bringing back the trophy, but we could not have asked for better support.”
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