India U-19 defeated Australia U-19 in a close contest of the first Youth test series at the M.A. Chidambaram stadium on Wednesday.

India coach Hrishikesh Kanitkar felt both sides would gain a lot playing the longer format, “It was a fabulous match. Both teams will gain from this. There are many things to reflect and work on, which is the case for U-19 cricket, but both sides fighting it out in a close match and getting a result at the end helps everyone to step up and deliver.”

“The tour is important because you get to play against international players which is always helpful because it opens your eyes to many things, you get to know how they play, and their attitude, and you learn a lot of things. So from that angle, this is very important.”

When asked if a particular player impressed him, he said, “I’ll stick to what I said earlier, I will not single out anyone, you saw what Nikhil did, his half-century is as important as Vaibhav’s century in the first innings. I truly believe everyone is equally capable of these things. Our job (all the coaches) is to help them perform at their best.

When asked about the winning mindset, he said, “Firstly, you want them to learn. Winning is important. I’m not going to say it’s ok to lose. No. As coaches, we look at the development part as well, but the objective is to win every game, it’s as simple as that.”

Chasing a tricky 212 for victory on a turning surface, the India U-19 side survived a scare as Nikhil Kumar (55 n.o., 71b, 3×4, 4×6) and Nitya Pandya (51, 86b, 3×4) played composed knocks and guided the home side to a two-wicket victory against Australia U-19 on day three of the first Youth test series at the M.A.Chidambaram stadium here on Wednesday.

India suffered an early setback when off-spinner Thomas Brown dismissed Vaibhav Suryavanshi and pacer Addison Sheriff removed Vihaan Malhotra with India struggling at 25 for two.

Nitya and K.P. Karthikeya (35, 52b, 5×4) added 71 runs for the third wicket before Karthikeya was trapped in front to Australia’s leg-spinner Vishwa Ramkumar (24.1-3-75-3).

96 for three quickly became 113 for five as Vishwa dismissed the well-set Nitya and pacer Aidan O’ Connor (12-4-27-4) sent back skipper Soham Patwardhan caught behind.

Abhigyan Kundu and Nikhil fought back with a 49-run sixth-wicket stand with attacking shots around the ground.

Aidan then dismissed Abhigyan and Vishwa disturbed Enaan’s timber before Nikhil and N. Samarth’s 43-run eighth-wicket association helped India cross the line.

Earlier, Soham (12.4-1-27-3) took the first wicket of the morning by dismissing Christian Howe, who was caught at mid-off.

Leg-spinner Enaan dismissed Simon Budge, who was looking to play an aerial shot over mid-off but found Karthikeya.

Addison and Aidan added 33 runs for the seventh wicket before the former was caught at silly point off Enaan. Thomas Brown was Enaan’s fifth victim when his stumps were rattled.

With not much batting left, Aidan lost his wicket to Enaan, as Soham picked up Vishwa for his third wicket as the visitors were bowled out for 214.

The scores: Aus U-19 293 & 214 in 67.4 overs (Mohamed Enaan 6/79) lost to Ind U-19 296 & 214/8 in 61.1 overs (Nitya Pandya 51, Nikhil 55 n.o., Aidan O’Connor 4/27).