Ijaz says it’s time for U19 players to deliver

KARACHI: Pakistan Under-19s head coach Ijaz Ahmed has said his colts have been trained well and it is now time for them to deliver.

Pakistan Under-19s underwent a strenuous training and practice session at the North West University Sports Village, Potchefstroom, on Thursday.

The team recorded convincing wins in two warm-up games during their five-day stay in Pretoria–against Nigeria and Sri Lanka.

They start their U19 World Cup campaign with a match against Scotland in the NWU Sports Village vicinity on Sunday (tomorrow). The high altitude of the Potchefstroom venue provides a different challenge to the players and the squad spent nearly three hours in a bid to acclimatise to the conditions.

“Our priority is to top our group and stay in the city as the team which finishes second will have to travel to Johannesburg,” said Ijaz. “So we want to stay here, get totally familiarised with the conditions and progress to quarter-final and beyond in Potchefstroom.

“We played our first warm-up game a day after we arrived in the country. I feel the bowlers were a bit stiff and wayward in that game. In the second match our bowlers Amir Khan, Tahir Hussain, Aamir Ali and Abbas bowled well, support bowlers Fahad and Qasim Akram also delivered and we won the game.

“Our first game was against Nigeria and it was a straightforward game for us as we got them out for 109 runs. The batsmen were not challenged much and we called back opener Haider Ali after he had scored a quick 50. It was almost a 10-wicket win for us,” said Ijaz, who played 60 Tests and 250 ODIs for Pakistan from 1986 to 2001.