A brave Pakistan U 19 team has defeated fiesty Indians in a low scoring thriller in the quarter finals of the U19 WC.
Due to heavy rain the match was reduced to 23 overs. Pakistan won the toss and put the Indians into bat on a seaming track and in over cast conditions. The move immediately paid off as India lost two wickets in the first over of Fayaz Butt. Mandeep Singh and Harpreet restored the Indian innings but they never tried to dominate the Pakistan bowlers.
Pace bowlers have been Pakistan’s strength historically in this tournament, even though Fayaz Butt took two wickets in his first over due to which India never recovered in the match but Pakistani pacers couldn’t exploit the conditions as their Indian counterparts did, I hate to say this but Indian pacers were exceptional they were defending a small total but they bowled agressively and almost all of them extracted a lot of movement Sandeep Singh and Netravalkar looked like counterfiet & half priced Wasim & Waqar.
India managed to score 114 they could never accelerate as they kept losing wickets but 114 was a decent total on this pitch.
Pakistan’s start of their innings was almost identical to that of India they lost their top three batsman, Babar, Shahzad and Ghuman when the score was just 16, Indian pacers were at top , but Ramiz Aziz and Ahsan Ali restored the innings with some sensible and nerveless batting both players added 55 runs in 10.5 overs for Pakistan but their running between the wicket was extremely poor finally after a few close calls Ahsan Ali got run out after scoring a sensible 30, Rameez soon followed him and the required run rate crept up to 7 at that stage it looked highly improbable that Pakistan would win.
Hammad Azam, Salman Qadir and Ahmed Waqas displayed some nerveless hitting at one stage the required run rate was above 8 an over but first a towering six by Hammad and then a huge six on the midwicket by Waqas brought the required runs down to 18 from 14 balls, Unadkat who was howling and growling at Pakistani players through out the day recieved some thumping from Usman Qadir and Hammad in the second last over and only four runs were required off the last over.
In the end a brave Pakistani team prevailed over nervous Indians who dropped a few catches and their ground fielding which was exceptional in the first half became ordinary under pressure. Al Maneria’s poor bowling changes and poor performance and defensive approach while batting costed India this match.
The match swung from one side to another like a pendulum it was thrilling to watch. For Pakistanis every victory against India is special but this one was super special.
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