India defeated Pakistan in a low scoring thriller by one wicket to reach the semi-final of the Under-19 World Cup on Monday.
The India vs Pakistan games over the years have been tense and India U-19 captain Unmukt Chand did admit that he was very “tensed” and was “shivering” till the last wicket pair of Harmeet Singh and Sandeep Sharma guided India to a one-wicket victory.
“I was very nervous, I had goose bumps. I am still shivering. I think both the teams played well. It’s always good to play against Pakistan. They were competitive,” Chand said at the post-match presentation ceremony.The skipper was all praise for man-of-the-match Baba Aparajith for his all-round performance.”He played well. It was his day today. He took four catches and then got their main batsman out. Had he finished unbeaten in his knock, it would been even better,” Chand lavished praise on his teammate.India’s batting collapsed chasing a modest total of 137 to win and were staring at defeat before Sandeep Sharma and Harmeet Singh teamed up to get 10 runs for the 10th wicket.Harmeet Singh scored the winning run for India.India was reduced to 8-3, before Aparajith and Zol joined to bail their side out of trouble.Aparajith and Vijay Zol added 66 runs for the fourth wicket.Indian medium pacers-Sandeep Sharma and Ravikant Singh claimed three wickets each to bowl Pakistan out for a mere 136 in the quarterfinal of the Under-19 World Cup.After deciding to bat first, Pakista had a disastrous start, losing first two wickets in the very first over.Pacer Sandeep Sharma picked up Sami Aslam and Imam-ul-Haq off the first and fifth ball of the opening over of the match.Skipper Babbar Azam (50), along with Umar Waheed (27), tried to stabalise the innings with a 53-run 3rd wicket stand.Brief Scores: Pakistan U-19 136 all-out from 45.1 overs (Babar Azam 50, Ehsan Adil 35; Sandeep Sharma 3 for 24, Ravikant Singh 3 for 43) vs India U-19 (Aparajith 51, Vijay Zol 35, Harmeet Singh 13 n.o.)The Indian captain said the rollicking start provided pacers, set the tone of the match.”It was a good start for us. Sandeep bowled well and Ravikant and Passi were equally good. Fielding was also top notch,” he said.Pakistan skipper Babar Azam, who scored a fighting half century admitted that they made mistakes.”We tried our best. Sandeep was good. We made mistakes and that’s why we lost,” he said.
With inputs from PTI and ANI.