U-19 Asia Cup clash: Pakistan beat India by two wickets in nail-biter

DUBAI: Pakistan’s young stars Muhammad Zeeshan Zameer and Shehzads heroics led Pakistan to a two-wicket victory in a nail-biting match against India in the group stage of the Asian Cricket Council’s (ACC) Under-19s Asia Cup.

Pakistan put India to bat after winning the toss and restricted them to 237 in the 50-overs

India gave Pakistan a 238-run target. Aaradhya Yadav smashed 50 runs off 83 balls and Harnoor Singh hit 46 runs, while Rajvardhan Hangargekar added 33 runs to the scoreboard.

Pakistani bowlers performed well, as 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 wicket each.

Chasing 238, Pakistan got off to a bad start as the side lost opener Abdul Wahid (0) as he was clean bowled by Rajvardhan Hangagrekar.  Shehzad performed exceptionally well, hitting 82 runs off 105 balls, including four 4s and five 6s. Irfan Khan hit 33 runs off 50 balls before he was sent back to the pavilion.

Pakistan kept on losing wickets at regular intervals after that, but it was Shehzad who kept Pakistan in the game.

Brief Scores: India 237 all out (Aaradhya Yadav 50, Harnoor Singh 46; Zeeshan Zameer 5-60); Pakistan 240/8 (Muhammad Shehzad 81, Irfan Khan 32; Raj Bawa 4-56)

Playing XI

Pakistan

Abdul Wahid, Maaz Sadaqat, Muhammad Shehzad, Haseebullah (wk), Qasim Akram (c), Irfan Khan, Rizwan Mehmood, Ahmad Khan, Ali Asfand, Zeeshan Zameer, Awais Ali

India

Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Harnoor Singh, Shaik Rasheed, Yash Dhull (c), Nishant Sindhu, Raj Bawa, Aaradhya Yadav (wk), Kaushal Tambe, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Vicky Ostwal, Ravi Kumar