Punjab pacer Sandeep Sharma is thrilled to have won the cup and is happy that he could bring all his experience into play

Bowling indeed have had a great role to play in the India’s Under-19 World Cup triumph and the man who stood out with his performance is the Punjab medium pacer Sandeep Sharma.

A report in The Times of India writes that Sharma who has played two Under-19 World was skipper Unmukt's go-to man in Townsville these past few days. In fact, Sharma was designated as the bowling captain of the team last year and continued to show the way to the others.

Sharma was barely 17 when he went to New Zealand under Ashok Menaria's captaincy in 2010. But his performance wasn’t that great and he first came into notice after the five-wicket haul in his second Ranji Trophy match against Orissa last November. His coach Munish Bali said Sandeep had become too predictable with his inswingers after the last World Cup.

"We told him to work on slower balls and yorkers. But he has done well to get few balls to hold the line," said Bali, was quoted in the report.

"He was extremely impressive in inter-zonal tournaments. He had picked 36 wickets in five matches then. I pushed the selectors to pick him knowing the conditions in New Zealand and he did reasonably well," Bali added.

It was only last season that Sharma got his out-swingers going under former India seamer Harvinder Singh. "I worked with him for one season and his natural ability to swing the ball impressed me. I told him to get closer to the stumps if he wanted the ball to leave the right-handers. Must say he has done well to gain such control so soon," Harvinder said.

"He can clock about 130km/hr and swinging the ball at that pace can be a handful for any batsman. But it would be better for him to work on his fitness to bowl long spells and increase his pace a little bit," Harvinder further added.

Meanwhile a report in The Hindustan Times writes that Sharma was thrilled that he could bring all his experience into play and make sure India emerged victorious.

In the last edition, India crashed out of the tournament in the quarterfinals after they lost to their arch-rivals Pakistan and this time Sharma’s urge to avenge that defeat was too strong to be shaken.

"When I joined Harmeet in the centre, we decided to stay calm and focus on every delivery. We decided not to think about the runs we need to get because we knew if we played out the 50 overs, victory would be ours," Sharma told HT.

Apart from the defeat in World Cup the Indian Colts had also failed to get past Pakistan on two occasions in the Asia Cup in June-July. They lost in the league by a run and only managed to tie the final.

But there can't be a better feeling than a victory in a World Cup knockout game. "The games in the Asia Cup were very close and it was just not our day. Though we knew Pakistan was a strong team, we were sure we were the best around. There is nothing better than showing them the exit door in a World Cup quarter," added Sharma.