World Cup 2019: Virat Kohli and Williamson lock horns in yet another semi-final after 11 years

South Africa defeated Australia in Manchester in the final league game of the ongoing World Cup which confirmed the semi-final line-ups. India, after beating Sri Lanka at Headingley, climbed to the top of the points table and remained there courtesy Australia’s loss. They will now face New Zealand in the first semi-final at the Old Trafford while the arch-rivals Australia and England will lock horns at Edgbaston.

However, it will be a deja vu moment for Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson when they will walk out in Manchester as the captains of their respective teams on July 9. Both the players have locked horns once before and that too in the semi-finals of the mega event itself during the U19 World Cup back in 2008. After more than 11 years, the duo will be again at the forefront having led from the front admirably for the senior team.

India won the match in 2008

It was a thriller back then as India U19 had just scraped through to the target with three wickets in hand. The match was played in Kuala Lumpur on February 27, 2008, in which the Kiwis had won the toss and elected to bat first. Corey Anderson shined with the bat for New Zealand U19 with a score of 70 off only 67 deliveries as the rest of the batsmen couldn’t do much.

The skipper Williamson opened the innings for his team and scored 37 off 80 balls before getting out to his counterpart Kohli. India bowled superbly to restrict New Zealand to 205 runs for the loss of eight after 50 overs. The rain intervened then and the colts in Blue were set a target of 191 runs in 43 overs.

Shreevats Goswami scored a brilliant half-century in the chase while the captain Virat Kohli also batted well scoring 43 runs with five fours to his name. However, the match went down to the wire with wickets falling at the regular intervals. Tim Southee was the star with the ball as he returned with the figures of 4/29 but India kept their nerves in the thriller and managed to win the game by three wickets.

With both the players once again facing off, the fans will be looking forward to yet another thriller and Virat Kohli will be eager to repeat the heroics again.