COLOMBO: Pakistan Shaheens were handed their first defeat in the ACC Men’s Emerging Teams Asia Cup by arch-rivals India ‘A’ here at the R Premadasa Stadium on Wednesday.

India ‘A’ crushed Shaheens by eight wickets as Rajvardhan Hangargekar starred with the ball with five wickets after Shaheens’ captain Mohammad Haris opted to bat first.

Hangargekar strike early for India as he dismissed opener Saim Ayub and Omair bin Yousuf for ducks in the fourth over giving his team the upper hand over Shaheens.

Hangargekar along with left-arm spinner Manav Suthar didn’t let Shaheens’ batters settle as they took wickets in regular intervals. Suthar ran through Pakistan’s middle-order dismissing Haseebullah Khan (27), Kamran Ghulam (15) and skipper Haris (14) as the Shaheens were reeling at 95 for six.

Qasim Akram (48) and Mubasir Khan (28) then steadied the ship for Shaheens as they stitched up a 53-run partnership for the seventh wicket before spinner Nishant Sindhu trapped Mubasir for LBW.

Mehran Mumtaz then joined hands with the right-handed batter Qasim and the duo added 43 runs for the eighth wicket before Qasim returned back to the hut, top-scoring for his side, hitting five fours.

Shaheens were dismissed for 205 in 48 overs with Mehran returning undefeated on 25.

In return, India ‘A’ batters chased the target pretty easily as opener Sai Sudharsan played an unbeaten inning of 104 while Nikin Jose scored 53 before losing his wicket to Mehran.

Captain Yash Dhull (21) and Player-of-the-match Sudharsan then wrapped the victory in the 37th over.

Shaheens will now face Sri Lanka ‘A’ in the first semi-final at the P Sara Oval on Friday while India ‘A’ will lock horns with Bangladesh ‘A’ at the R Premadasa International Cricket Stadium in the other last-four clash on the same day.

Brief scores:

PAKISTAN SHAHEENS 205 in 48 overs (Qasim Akram 48, Sahibzada Farhan 35; Rajvardhan Hangargekar 5-42, Manav Suthar 3-36)

INDIA ‘A’ 210-2 in 36.4 overs (Sai Sudharsan 104 not out, Nikin Jose 53).

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2023