Image: India beat Pakistan to seal Under 19 berth / © X (Twitter)
In order to advance to the semi-finals, Pakistan needed to chase down the 253 runs required to win in 33.3 overs; however, they did not actually try to pursue the monumental chase on what was a very difficult pitch with inconsistent bounce. Furthermore, as the game progressed, it became even more difficult to bat on the pitch, therefore making it impossible to chase down the runs needed to win in regulation time, despite having a reasonable chance to do so before the end of the game (33.3 overs).
For India, a victory would qualify them as group winners, therefore allowing them to play against Afghanistan in the semi-final held in Harare. A defeat to Pakistan after playing 33.3 overs would have seen India play against Australia in the semi-final held in Bulawayo on the same worn-out square. By the end of the game, the strength of the Indian line-up outmatched that of Pakistan, who had outperformed India throughout the match.
At one point during the match, Pakistan had taken a good position against India at 47 for 3 and 200 for 7 and could not restrict them to a chase that Pakistan could manage. The Indian innings then turned around when Vedant Trivedi was very helpful, contributing 68 runs to India’s total of 289 off 98 balls. In addition, the rest of the lower order contributed runs with all having double figures; No. 8 Kanishk Chouhan scored 35, No. 7 RS Ambrish scored 29, and No. 9 Khilan Patel scored 21 off 15 balls. Furthermore, Pakistan’s poor fielding and slowness allowed them to bowl the last four overs of the innings with one more fielder in the inner ring than was allowed, which contributed to the 39 runs scored in those four overs (i.e., India had lost no wickets in that period).
With the bat, Pakistan got off to a good start, but once they lost their 4th wicket, the batting of the team became a significant drop off in standard; this may be one of the reasons that they did not go all out for qualification. In comparison, India, on the other hand, had many ways to play defensively and utilized spin very effectively during an afternoon that had great pitch conditions for spin.
India will remember a match where they utilised superior tactics against Egypt. However, initially, they were outplayed as they were being outbowled then. They read the conditions well enough to choose to bat first; however, the match was not a compromise, as Pakistan won the toss and chased anyway. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was quick to attack with his new ball during a quick fire (30 off 22); however, after 47 runs with the third wicket down, Trivedi dug in with Vihaan Malhotra to ensure that any score above 200 would make it very difficult for any outrageous chase. They also bowled defensively to secure their advancement to the next round before exploiting the only opportunity available when Pakistani Captain Farhan Yousaf was caught at long on, making the score 151 runs with 3 wickets down after 29 overs.
The Pakistan innings went into a remarkable freefall as they lost 8 wickets for 43 runs, with the ball breaking sharply and India capitulating via the part-time spinners against the left-only batting order. Chouhan, who had been run out early, finished with figures of 10 overs, 1 maiden, 30 runs, and 1 wicket, and Captain Ayush Mhatre took three wickets with Malhotra taking one. Khilan also contributed to the run production for India as he added 3 wickets at no cost.
After Henil Patel got Sameer Minhas out early on, they naturally had to be a little cautious in their batting approach, but you would have expected them to use this opportunity to attack and turn the innings into something similar to a T20. The situation at 13.3 overs was that there were 174 runs to chase down and 20 overs left in which to do it, with nine wickets remaining, if they were to qualify, but they hardly ever put any pressure on India. They only took what was available to them, and there was not a great deal available from Chouhan.
When the third wicket partnership of Usman Khan and Yousaf was at 63 runs, it looked like Pakistan would win the match fairly comfortably. When Yousaf picked out a slower ball from Ambrish and tried to hit his third six of the innings, but did not manage to clear the boundary at long-on, that was when India began to tighten their grip on the match and subsequently choked Pakistan out of the match.