POTCHEFSTROOM: A century from Yashasvi Jaiswal enabled defending champions India cruise to a 10-wicket win over neighbours and arch-rivals Pakistan in Potchefstroom on Tuesday to reach the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup final for the seventh time.

Jaiswal was the star performer for the winners as he struck an unbeaten 105 off 113 balls, completing his century and sealing the victory in style with a six over deep mid-wicket at Senwes Park.

India, the record four-time winners of the underage competition, dismissed Pakistan for 172 in 43.1 overs before comfortably knocking off the runs with as many as 88 deliveries to spare.

India will play either New Zealand or Bangladesh, who meet in Thursday’s second semi-final, for the title at the same venue on Sunday. Pakistan will contest the third-place play-off in Benoni on Saturday.

“It’s a dream come true for me. To be able to do this for my country is a great feeling. To score a hundred against Pakistan in a World cup semi-final is something I can’t put into words,” said man-of-the-match Jaiswal. “They bowled well initially and we wanted to ride that out and we knew we could dominate them after that.”

Left-hander Jaiswal, who was snapped up by the Rajasthan Royals in the 2020 IPL auction, smacked eight fours and four sixes as he took over as the tournament’s leading run-scorer.

He was ably supported in a leisurely chase by fellow opener Divyaansh Saxena who finished 59 not out (99 balls, six fours), his second fifty of the competition.

Jaiswal earlier picked up the key wicket of Pakistan opener Haider Ali (56 off 77 balls, nine boundaries) with his part-time leg-spin as Pakistan collapsed from 96 for two in an innings where just three players made double digits.

Haider and captain Rohail Nazir (62 off 102, six fours) helped Pakistan recover after losing Mohammad Huraira and Fahad Munir cheaply, but only Mohammad Haris, who hit a brisk 21 off 15 balls, provided any additional contribution.

Left-arm seamer Sushant Mishra took 3-28 while right-arm quick Kartik Tyagi and leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi collected two wickets apiece.

“The pitch was good, and we didn’t put enough runs on the board,” said Rohail. “I think Haider and I had a great partnership, we were at a good position at the 25-over mark, but Haider got out at a crucial point, and the rest of the batsmen weren’t able to take enough responsibility.”

He added: “We learn from all our mistakes, and the boys are confident and happy that we played some good cricket in the tournament.”

Pakistan, who were back-to-back champions in 2004 and 2006, haven’t beaten India at the U19 World Cup since 2010.

With political relations on a knife-edge, there has been no Test series between the two countries at senior bilateral level since 2007-08 and no white ball series since 2012-13.—Agencies

Scoreboard

PAKISTAN:

Haider Ali c Bishnoi b Jaiswal 56

M. Huraira c Saxena b Mishra 4

Fahad Munir c Ankolekar b Bishnoi 0

Rohail Nazir c Varma b Mishra 62

Qasim Akram run out 9

M. Haris c Saxena b Ankolekar 21

Irfan Khan b Tyagi 3

Abbas Afridi lbw b Bishnoi 2

Tahir Hussain c Jurel b Tyagi 2

Aamir Ali c Veer b Mishra 1

Mohammad Amir Khan not out 0

EXTRAS (B-1, W-10, NB-1) 12

TOTAL (all out, 43.1 overs) 172

FALL OF WKTS: 1-9, 2-34, 3-96, 4-118, 5-146, 6-156, 163, 8-169, 9-172.

BOWLING: Kartik Tyagi 8-0-32-2 (1nb, 2w); Mishra 8.1-0-28-3 (5w); Ravi Bishnoi 10-0-46-2 (2w); Akash Singh 7-0-25-0; Ankolekar 7-0-29-1 (1w); Jaiswal 3-0-11-1.

INDIA:

Y.B.K. Jaiswal not out 105

D.A. Saxena not out 59

EXTRAS (LB-2, W-10) 12

TOTAL (for no wkt, 35.2 overs) 176

DID NOT BAT: N.T. Tilak Varma, P.J. Garg, D.C. Jurel, S.A. Veer, A.V. Ankolekar, Ravi Bishnoi, S.S. Mishra, Kartik Tyagi, Akash Singh.

BOWLING: Tahir Hussain 6-1-17-0 (2w); Qasim Akram 8-0-37-0; Mohammad Amir Khan 5-1-20-0 (2w); Abbas Afridi 7-0-50-0 (2w); Aamir Ali 5.2-0-38-0 (3w); Fahad Munir 4-0-12-0.

RESULT: India won by 10 wickets.

UMPIRES: A.T. Holdstock (South Africa) and R. Black (Ireland).

TV UMPIRE: W.R. Knights (New Zealand).

MATCH REFEREE: G.F. Labrooy (Sri Lanka).

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Yashasvi Jaiswal.

SECOND SEMI-FINAL: New Zealand vs Bangladesh, Thursday.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2020