Acouple of years ago, while playing an invitational U-19 tournament in Pune, the organisers were amazed by the six-hitting prowess of Sachin Dhas and checked the bat’s size to ensure that he was not cheating.
He is not a muscular guy and back then he was not this tall as well. So him hitting big sixes caught the attention of the organisers and they checked the width of his bat. After a few minutes, they cleared him but they were in shock,’ Sachin Dhas’ coach Sheikh Azhar narrates the story to the Indian Express.
Cut to the present, Dhas, who will turn 19 on Saturday, scored a match-winning 116 as India trounced Nepal by 132 runs at Mangaung Oval in Bloemfontein and secured their semifinal spot in the U-19 World Cup.
Before Friday, Dhas had never played more than 20 balls in an inning in the tournament. In the last four matches, he has scored 26 not out (20b), 21 not out (9b), 20 (16b), and 15 (11b). He was given the role of a finisher. Against Nepal, India lost three quick wickets and were in a spot of bother, when Dhas joined forces with skipper Uday Saharan (110) and put on a match-winning 215-run stand for thefourth wicket as India posted 297 for 5. Another clinical bowling display from left-arm spinner Saumy Pandey (4/29) helped India restrict Nepal to 165 for 9.