EAST LONDON: Pakistan beat Nepal by five wickets in their match of Under-19 World Cup here on Wednesday.
Nepal scored 197 after opting to bat first. Pakistan chased the target for the loss of five wickets in the 48th over.
The openers got off to a quickfire start aided by some wayward bowling from Pakistan’s new ball bowlers, but Ahmed Hussain’s introduction at first change brought the breakthrough.
The leg-spinner cleaned up Arjun Kamal and then had Aakash Tripathi caught in the next over. A composed Bipin Rawal and skipper Dev Khanal rebuilt for Nepal but left-arm spinners Arafat Minhas and Ali Asfand helped Pakistan take back control of the game.
Asfand produced the breakthrough by sending back Khanal (23) in the 18th over. Minhas then dismissed wicketkeeper Uttam Magar and the well-settled Rawal (39) in fairly quick succession.
From 80/2, Nepal slipped to 96/5, but they fought back with the lower middle-order contributing runs.
Gulshan Jha, Deepak Dumre, and Subash Bhandari added over 60 runs between them and with further runs from the No.10 Aakash Chand, Nepal reached a respectable 197.
Minhas with three wickets was the key bowler for Pakistan with Ubaid Shah snaring the final two wickets off back-to-back deliveries in the final over.
In reply, an 80-run opening stand between Shamyl Hussain and Shahzaib Khan, who had made a hundred in the first game, gave Pakistan a strong platform.
The two were watchful at the start, scoring only 33 runs in the first 10 overs, but runs started to flow better after the Powerplay overs.
Just as it seemed Pakistan were cruising to the target, Chand struck a double blow in the 22nd over, sending back both openers in the space of three deliveries.
He added a third a few overs later by dismissing Minhas for eight. Aakash Tripathi joined in on the act with a fourth wicket in the 28th over and Pakistan were suddenly in a spot of bother at 104/4.