Kuala Lumpur: India Under-19s played some beautiful cricket to get close to the Pakistan Under-19s but fell short by just one run in the ongoing U-19 Asia Cup. The match went down till the last ball as India needed two runs of the final ball, but the batsman on strike Mohsin Sayyed drove the ball straight to the bowler as India fell short. The star for India in the innings was Vijay Zol who scored an unbeaten 109 and was the sole reason why India got so close to the target.
Pakistan who was put in to bat lost an early wicket but came back strongly with a partnership of 213 runs for the second wicket. Their batsmen Sami Aslam (121) and Imam-ul-Haq (88) played fluently and took Pakistan to a position from where they could launch the attack. Some late flair from Mohammad Nawaz (43 of 28 balls) took Pakistan to a score of 287.
India in reply had a descent start, as most of their batsmen got a start. Zol put together a stand of 86 runs with captain Unmkt Chand (49). But, it was the seventh wicket partnership of 51 runs between Zol and Kalaria (30 of 16 balls) that brought India into the match.
India needed 17 runs from the last ball and got 15 of them in the first five balls. India will be cursing them not to clear the finish line even after coming so close to the target.
Brief Score:
Pakistan Under-19s: 287/7 (Aslam 121, Imam-ul-Haq 88, Kalaria 4-54)
India Under-19s: 286/8 (Zol 109*, Waheed 2-54)
By Indian Sports News Network
