ACC U19 Asia Cup: Nepal beat India but this gesture of coach Rahul Dravid is a winner

Mumbai: Nepal’s Under-19 cricket team completed a 19-run win over India Under-19 cricket team during a group match in the ongoing ACC Under-19 Asia Cup on Sunday.

However, following the loss, nothing stopped India under-19 coach Rahul Dravid from going forward to the Nepal camp and congratulating the team on their memorable performance. Dravid walked up to his opposing team, and congratulated Nepal’s coach Binod Kumar Das on their win, saying that they deserved the victory.

Das spoke about Dravid’s wonderful gesture.

“Dravid has been very humble. He congratulated us. He said we deserved this win as much as anybody else. He also said we played better than anybody else in the tournament. We are happy he acknowledges our effort. We are thrilled to have his support with us,” Das was quoted saying to ESPNcricinfo.

“We are all very excited about it because we have never beaten India at any level. Knowing India’s strength it is one of the biggest wins for us,” he added.

“This victory against India has come as a big boost,” he went on to say.

“We can take a lot of pride in fielding and also in our bowling. Today was another example of executing that. India got off to a good start, but we managed to pull them back,” he added.

In Nepal’s bowling department, it was Dipendra Siungh Airee who starred with a spell of 4-39.

Binod Das also went onto praise the 17-year-old Dipendra.

"Dipendra is not our main spinner, but he has been pitching good areas in recently. He actually has been our stop-gap bowler but he was our best bowler today.

“Assisting him were our legspinner Sandeep [Lamichhanne], who has been bowling well throughout the tournament, and left-arm spinner Shahab Alam. Then Pawan Saraf, too, was accurate. It was a collective effort,” he said.

Last year, after a match against Canada Under-19 team during an ICC U-19 World Cup warm up match, Dravid had gone up to the Canada team's camp to console the team, after the Men in Blue defeated the Canadians by 372 runs.

The Indian team will next lock horns with Bangladesh Under-19 on Tuesday, as they search for their second win in the tournament.