Olympic gold medal winning javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra on Saturday met the Indian contingent on the eve of their U19 T20 Women’s World Cup final against England on Sunday, a post shared by the BCCI revealed.
The post which was captioned, “A Gold-standard meeting! 👏👏 Javelin thrower & Olympic Gold medallist @Neeraj_chopra1 interacted with #TeamIndia ahead of the #U19T20WorldCup Final!” showed the superstar javelin thrower in various moods as he interacted with the U-19 team.
On Sunday, India captain Shafali Verma will chase history when she leads India against England in the first-ever ICC U-19 Women’s T20 World Cup final. For all their success at the international stage, the Indian women’s cricket team has never won a World Cup at any level and the young batter, who has been part of two World Cup and one Commonwealth Games final with the senior team, will look to bring the elusive title home.
A Gold-standard meeting! 👏👏
Javelin thrower & Olympic Gold medallist @Neeraj_chopra1 interacted with #TeamIndia ahead of the #U19T20WorldCup Final! 👍 👍 pic.twitter.com/TxL5afL2FT
— BCCI (@BCCI) January 28, 2023
The seniors have made the World Cup final on three occasions across formats only to have returned with bitter memories — losing to Australia by 98 runs in 2005 and losing to England by 9 runs in 2017 in the ODIs, and in T20Is they went down in the 2020 final to the Aussies by 85 runs.
In the U-19 World Cup semifinal, India registered a dominating eight-wicket win after their bowlers restricted a powerful New Zealand side to an under-par 107/9.
Leg-spinner Parshavi Chopra led the bowling show by claiming 3/20, while Shafali went for just seven runs in her four overs, taking one wicket.
In reply, a ruthless half-century from the opening batter and the tournament’s leading scorer, Shweta Sehrawat, saw India home.
Neeraj Chopra, meanwhile, has set himself a target in the new year which is to breach the 90-metre mark with his javelin. “In this new year, I hope I will put an end to this question,” Chopra had said in a video interaction from England earlier this month.
After the historic gold in Tokyo, the 24-year-old Olympic champion javelin thrower has continued to raise expectations with a silver at the World Championships, before adding another feather in his cap by winning the Diamond League Finals gold.