Gill ‘overwhelmed’ after scoring Canada’s first U19 CWC century

Akash Gill has spoken of his delight after he cracked Canada’s first century at an ICC U19 CWC in the side’s Plate Quarter-Final v Papua New Guinea.

The hard-hitting all-rounder, who registered 12 fours and two sixes in his knock of 120, said: “It’s amazing. I didn’t really know about that record but it’s honestly a great feeling, and when I got to that milestone I was just overwhelmed. It’s still surreal to me, so I’m just letting it sink in. I’m really happy though. To look back at this 10 years from now, at the age of 18, scoring a World Cup hundred, it just means a lot. It’s definitely going to be one of my cherished moments.

Gill’s innings helped propel the North American side to their highest-ever World Cup total.

“I’m glad to know that now, that’s really good!” Gill said. “We were aiming for 250 and above against PNG. We were just looking to bat the 50 overs, we knew if we batted the 50 overs we were going to get to that total.

Canada ended up in the Plate after a 282-run defeat to England in their final group game put paid to their Super League ambitions.

“We were a bit heartbroken, to be honest. We were really looking forward to that game and it really meant a lot to us. But we can’t really dwell on the past, you’ve always got to look forward and move onto the next game, and we knew that this game was going to be our statement to let everybody know that we’re still here to compete even though we’re not competing for the World Cup anymore.

"We’re here to show that we’re the best Associate team in the world. The results say it, the statistics say it, we haven’t been thrashed except against England, and we’ve shown the other Associates we’re not here to joke around."