KARACHI, Feb 21: Sarfraz Ahmed, the skipper of Pakistan’s victorious Under-19 World Cup side, dedicated junior team’s memorable triumph to the national senior squad. Sarfraz said that his team vowed before last Sunday’s final against India in Colombo that they would clinch the trophy to make up for Pakistan’s one-day series loss against Rahul Dravid’s Indians.
“We were deeply disappointed to learn that our senior team was defeated in the one-day series. Each of us then pledged that we would try our level best in the Under-19 World Cup final and avenge the loss,” he said.
The junior Pakistan captain paid tribute to his pace bowlers for bundling out India for 71.
“All three of them (Anwar Ali, Jamshed Ahmed and Akhtar Ayub) were simply magnificent when we took the field. Our main worry was to get the main Indian batsmen quickly.
“Jamshed gave us a prefect start with the first ball when he forced Gaurav Dhiman to play onto his stumps. Then Anwar picked up three wickets in his first over, including the crucial scalps of Cheteshwar Pujara and Mayank Tehlan, to put Pakistan back in the game,” Sarfraz added.
The skipper made it clear that Pakistan could have won by a far bigger margin had the game not been stopped for dinner break.
“We were on the roll when India lost those five wickets for nine runs. But the interval enabled them to regroup while we relaxed a bit after such a fantastic start,” he explained.
“I must say Piyush Chawla batted very well to worry us for a while. But we never lost heart even when Chawla and Pinal Shah got a partnership going. Akhtar then took the last three wickets to bring back smiles to our faces.”
Sarfraz is impressed by Chawla, who bowls leg-spin and is a competent batsman, and said that he was a future Test all-rounder. “He is a good cricketer who has a bright future ahead of him.”
He said the defeat against Bangladesh was a wake-up call for Pakistan. “Honestly speaking, Bangladesh is a good team and had beaten other good teams as well in the past 18 months leading up to the World Cup.
Anwar Ali, Man-of-the-Match in the final, was modest when he said that it was a team effort that gave Pakistan the title.
“I may have picked up five wickets in the final but others also contributed to our great victory. Jamshed and Akhtar bowled very well throughout the tournament,” stressed the spindly-built Anwar, who was tournament’s second highest wicket-taker behind Australian skipper Moises Henriques (16 wickets).
The Karachi paceman added that the conditions in Colombo were in favour of batting. “There was nothing wrong in the pitch. But it was just that we batted poorly. However when we came to bowl, the ball started to swing prodigiously in the humid conditions and all three of us bowled in the right area which had the batsmen groping.”
Mansoor Rana, the team coach, reiterated that he didn’t believe his side would be able to defend a small total of 109.
“I must say the lads were despondent in the period between the innings. But I simply told them that in my experience I have seen this happen before,” the former one-day player said.
“I just told them quietly to raise their spirits and try to take some early wickets since apart from the Indian top-order the rest hadn’t done well in the tournament. One of them was averaging over 100, but the law of averages said that they were bound to fail.
“All credit goes to Anwar, Jamshed and Akhtar for they were the guys who really kept us going since our batsmen generally failed. To defend 109 against the overwhelming favourites was really incredible,” the proud coach added.
Mansoor also lauded Sarfraz’s leadership and indicated that he could be a future Pakistan skipper. “Sarfraz has a bright future because captaining the side in Sri Lanka had shown that he has what it takes to lead at a higher level.”
