Pakistan are knocked out of the ICC U19 World Cup by their arch rivals India in a thrilling finish. Read a detailed report of the days action

By Amir Husain (20th August, 2012)

 

Toss: Pakistan, decided to bat.



Teams:

India: Harmeet Singh, Sandeep Sharma, Unmukt Chand (C), Hanuma Vihari, Baba Aparajith, Prashant Chopra, Akshdeep Nath, Ravikant Singh, Smit Patel (W), Kamal Passi, Vijay Zol

Pakistan: Zia-ul-Haq, Babar Azam (C), Mohammad Nawaz, Zafar Gohar, Umar Waheed, Sami Aslam, Saad Ali, Ehsan Adil, Azizullah, Salman Afridi (W), Imam-ul-Haq


Pakistan Innings


Pakistan's hesitation to chase was possibly a factor in choosing to bat after winning the toss of this crucial QF encounter between 2 arch rivals in Townsville.

However, Sharma, Ravikant and Harmeet of India made sure that the Pakistani openers did not have any real freedom to score runs and the Indian slip cordon picked up not less than 3 brilliant catches to send Pakistan plummeting down to 62/6

The only real highlight of that opening 20 overs was a 55 run partnership between Umar Waheed and Azam before a steadying run of play by Azam and Gohar.

With intermittent rain stoppages, delaying the inevitable, Azam and Gohar tried to rally their side as best as they could with Azam reaching a courageous 50 before losing his wicket to a nothing shot. Goahr didnt last long either and at 98/8, all seemed truly lost.

Ehsan Adil had different ideas - with 4 big sixes to his name, Adil lifted (if thats the word one can use in a low team score!) to 136 before he was out for an explosive 37.

India thus set a target of 137 in 50 overs, Pakistan's hope lay with striking early and striking hard.



Fall of Wickets:

0/1 (0.1 ov) Sami Aslam
0/2 (0.5 ov) Imam-ul-Haq
55/3 (17.3 ov) Umar Waheed
61/4 (19.3 ov) Saad Ali
61/5 (19.4 ov) Salman Afridi
62/6 (20.5 ov) Mohammad Nawaz
98/7 (32.4 ov) Babar Azam
98/8 (33.1 ov) Zafar Gohar
136/9 (44.2 ov) Azizullah
136/10 (45.1 ov) Ehsan Adil


India Innings

Ehsan Adil ended the Pakistan innings with a fighting performance and then he did the same in the field - first taking a breathtaking catch to remove captain Chand and then removing Chopra in his over. The target may have looked easy but the spritied bowling attack was going to make life very difficult for Indian batsmen.

And the pressure did not ease. Zia-ul-Haq then removed Vihari for a duck and suddenly the much vaunted India batting order was looking very ordinary.

What followed next was possibly a match changing partnership of 66 runs between Baba Aparajith and Vijay Zol - both batsmen withstood the pressure posed by Pakistani bowlers to take India closer to the target until Zol was run out with the score on 74.

From then on, wickets fell at regular intervals with Pakistani bowlers sensing a kill. Whilst, Haq and Adil were the architects of the initial pressure, it was the third pacer - Azizullah - who came to the fore with some brilliant bowling picking 3 important wickets towards the end of the innings.

Like all India Pakistan encounters, even this game down to the wire - the ninth Indian wicket fell with 10 runs to win. Pakistani bowlers were unable to make further inroads with the last pair of Indian batsmen taking India accross the finish line. India thus winning by 1 wicket with 2 overs to spare.


Fall of Wickets:

7/1 (2.6 ov) Unmukt Chand
7/2 (3.1 ov) Prashant Chopra
8/3 (4.6 ov) Hanuma Vihari
74/4 (24.4 ov)Vijay Zol
84/5 (26.6 ov) Akshdeep Nath
120/6 (36.2 ov) Baba Aparajith
124/7 (39.3 ov) Smit Patel
125/8 (40.3 ov) Kamal Passi
127/9 (40.6 ov)Ravikant Singh


Summary:

India emerged as winners of this contest but what is heartening is to see the fight and the intent to compete amongst both sets of youngsters. A bright future awaits all concerned but for the moment, Pakistan U19 would want to sit back and analyse their batting. Hindsight is a great thing, but a few more runs from the top order may well have changed the course of the match.