Pakistan must chase India’s 252 in 33.3 overs to oust them from U19 World Cup semi-finals

At the halfway stage at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, on Sunday, Pakistan Under-19 have to chase down India’s Under-19 score of 252 in 33.3 overs to reach the semi-finals of the Under-19 Cricket World Cup at the expense of their opponents.

India are on six points, while Pakistan have four, but an inferior net run rate. The equation is simple: get to 253 runs in 33.3 overs at 7.55 per over and Pakistan advance to the semi-finals at the expense of India.

For India, they simply have to defend their score beyond this point or bowl the Pakistanis out.

After winning the toss, Pakistan captain Farhan Yousaf elected to field, and the drama began almost immediately.

In the 8th over, Indian opener Vaibhav Sooryavanshi attempted to muscle a short ball from Mohammad Sayyam but skied it.

The midwicket fielder circled under it, yet the ball took forever to come down, and Sooryavanshi survived.

A chaotic run-out attempt followed, with three stumps missed, but the reprieve was short-lived—on the very next ball, Sayyam had Sooryavanshi caught behind for a quickfire 30 off 22 balls.

Two balls later, he struck again, dismissing Indian captain Ayush Mhatre for a two-ball duck and in the 9th over, Abdul Subhan removed Aaron George for 16, leaving India wobbling at 47/3 despite a flying start at nearly seven runs per over.

Vihaan Malhotra and Vedant Trivedi steadied the innings, bringing India to 100 in 21.1 overs, cheered on by vociferous fans.

But Pakistan’s spinners kept chipping away: Ahmed Hussain caught and bowled Malhotra, Ali Hassan Baloch removed Abhigyan Kundu for 16 after a dramatic no-ball free-hit reprieve, and Momin Qamar accounted for Trivedi, who had battled valiantly for 68 off 98 balls.

Ali Raza claimed RS Ambrish’s wicket as India passed 200 in the 44th over, while Khilan Patel’s quickfire 21 off 15 balls added late impetus.

Kanishk Chouhan contributed 38, but the last wicket fell to a sharp run-out by Pakistan, leaving India all out for 252.

Abdul Subhan was the standout with 3/23 in 9.3 overs, but the wickets were shared across Sayyam*, Hussain, Qamar, Baloch, and Raza, keeping India under pressure throughout.

Fall of wickets:
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi 47/1 (7.4), Ayush Mhatre (capt) 47/2 (8), Aaron George 47/3 (8.1), Vihaan Malhotra 109/4 (23.4), Abhigyan Kundu 147/5 (32.2), Vedant Trivedi 182/6 (40.2), RS Ambrish 200/7 (44), Khilan Patel 250/8 (49.1), Kanishk Chouhan 251/9 (49.3), Deepesh Devendran 252/10 (49.5).
Teams:
India:
1 Aaron George, 2 Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, 3 Ayush Mhatre (capt), 4 Vihaan Malhotra, 5 Abhigyan Kundu (wk), 6 Vedant Trivedi, 7 RS Ambrish, 8 Kanishk Chouhan, 9 Khilan Patel, 10 Henil Patel, 11 Deepesh Devendran
Pakistan:
1 Hamza Zahoor (wk), 2 Sameer Minhas, 3 Usman Khan, 4 Ahmed Hussain, 5 Farhan Yousaf (capt), 6 Huzaifa Ahsan, 7 Ali Hassan Baloch, 8 Abdul Subhan, 9 Momin Qamar, 10 Mohammad Sayyam, 11 Ali Raza