U19 Asia Cup: Pakistan beats India by two wickets

Pakistan under 19 team defeated India under 19 by two wickets in the group stage match of ACC U19 Asia Cup 2021 played at the ICC Academy Ground No 2, Dubai on Saturday.

Skipper Qasim Akram after winning the toss put India to bat and managed to restrict the Indian side to 237 in the 50-over match.

Young stars Muhammad Shehzad and Zeeshan Zameer’s heroics contributed to Pakistan’s victory.

Zameer took an amazing five-wicket haul in 10 overs, followed by Awais Ali, who picked up two wickets, while Maaz Sadaqat and Akram were able to take a scalp each.

Pakistan slipped to 69/3. Skipper Qasim Akram (22) also fell cheaply at that it felt as Pakistan was in a spot of bother at 115/4, even as Shehzad continued to tear apart the opposition attack.

Shehzad performed exceptionally well with the bat, hitting 82 runs off 105 balls, including four 4s and five 6s.

Shehzad was run out in the 37th over that brought India back into the contention as Pakistan lost half its side for 159.

However, Irfan Khan (32) and Rizwan Mehmood (29) took the game deep by adding 47 runs for the sixth wicket.

Irfan Khan scored 33 runs off 50 balls before he was sent back to the pavilion.

Then, Bawa pegged back Pakistan by removing Mehmood and Irfan Khan, but a composed Ahmad Khan, who hammered three boundaries and a six, completed the job for the green team.

Brief Scores:

India U-19 237 all out (Aaradhya Yadav 50, Harnoor Singh 46; Zeeshan Zamir 5/60, Awais Ali 2/43) lost to Pakistan U-19 240/8 (Muhammad Shehzad 81, Irfan Khan 32; Raj Bawa 4/56) by two wickets.