Hinds on Youth Cup short list

Barbadian Ryan Hinds is being seen as one of the top Under-19 cricketers in the world.

Hinds, the left-handed all-rounder who led West Indies in the recent Youth World Cup in Sri Lanka, is among a short list of eight players in the running for the people's choice as Player-of-The-Tournament.

The poll appears on the homepage of the CricInfo, the home of cricket on the Internet and can be reached at https://www.cricket.org.

Viewers to the site can vote for their top player. The poll is, however, not set up of the International Cricket Council, but merely a chance for fans to air their views.

The others in the limelight are Ian Daniels of Sri Lanka, Ravneet Ricky, Yuraj Singh and Shaladh Sriwastava of champions India, South African Jacques Rudolph, Australia's Shane Watson and Zahid Saeed of Pakistan.

Hinds, who batted well as a member of the West Indies 'A' team last year, gained a chance in the pool after consistent perfor-mances in Sri Lanka.

He made 202 runs in five innings at 40.40 per innings with a top score of 69 among his two half-centuries.

He took six wickets with his left-arm spin, with a best of four for 14.

Ricky, who was sensational in India's semifinal win, made 290 runs in six innings with a best of 108.

The opener also had two half-centuries to be the competition's leading batsman.

All-rounder Yuraj Singh made 140 runs at better than a run-a-ball and also took 11 wickets at 8.54 apiece.

Team-mate Sriwastava took ten wickets for 164 runs, and made the final pool because most of his performances came at crucial stages.

Saeed, a left-arm pacer who plays for National Bank of Pakistan, was the tournament's leading wicket-taker with 15 scalps at 7.60 apiece. His best haul was five for 14 and he took a wicket every 18 balls.

Watson made 262 runs in five innings, including an even unbeaten century, and also took four wickets.

In three knocks Rudolph, his side's vice-captain, managed 200 with a highest score of 156 not out and had a strike rate of 92.

There was also another Barbadian reaching the top marker with all-rounder Calitos Lopez being ninth in the strike rate table. Used as a pinch-hitter, he made 104 runs at a rate of 106.12.

He had five wickets for 101.