Picture Credit: ICC
India beat England in the finals of the U-19 World Cup on the night of February 5 to lift the trophy for the record-extending fifth time. While the tournament has come to a close officially, the celebrations have just started for the cricketers among the cricket-crazy fans that the Boys in Blue have. Suddenly a nation of a billion-plus has got a bunch of boys as their heroes and their stories are being discovered and coming to the light after the historic triumph by the Yash Dhull-led side.
One such story is doing the rounds regarding the team's wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Bana. It is being learned that Bana wasn't actually an automated choice for the wicketkeeper's slot in the side, however, in an incident which is reminiscent of MS Dhoni's selection in the Indian team, his innings studded with many sixes when the selectors were there among the spectators forced them to take notice and give him a chance in the marquee event.
A similar incident had happened with legendary keeper-batter Dhoni and was even depicted in his biopic MS Dhoni: The Untold Story. Interestingly, Dinesh Bana’s friend Nishant Sindhu had informed Bana about the selectors' presence in the stadium during the Challengers Trophy game where he scored 170 runs from 98 balls. Both of them shone in the summit clash with Sindhu hitting a crucial fifty and Bana finishing the game with two successive sixes in the 48th over.
Tu bas six count karna aaj mere: Dinesh Bana
The popular belief is that Sindhu told Bana. "Aaj Selectors aane waale hain (The selectors are going to come today)" to which Bana responded: "Tu bas six count karna aaj mere (Just count the number of sixes I hit today)."
Bana's knock of 170 contained 14 sixes and 10 fours and easily convinced the selectors to give him a chance. In hindsight, the move to back him proved out to be the correct one as he played quite a few cameos including in the summit clash where his six to finish off the match also reminding Indian fans of the famous six over long-on that Dhoni smashed to seal the 2011 World Cup.
