After being bowled out for 109 – seemingly handing their opposition a simple win – Pakistan defied the odds to dismiss India for just 71 and retain the Under-19 World Cup trophy
The Bulletin by Andrew McGlashan19-Feb-2006
Scorecard
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Pakistan retained the Under-19 World Cup in extraordinary fashion at the Premadasa Stadium as they successfully defended 109 with a thrilling display of pace and swing bowling. Anwar Ali, who took 5 for 35, the best figures in a final – a record held for about an hour by Piyush Chawla –
along with Jamshed Ahmed devastated the Indian batting in a breathtaking display.Throughout the tournament Pakistan have been living on the edge, following
their loss against Bangladesh and being 80 for 5 against Australia. Being
skittled for little over 100 appeared to be one final slip too many.However, no one bothered to tell Anwar and Jamshed who bowled blistering
spells to leave everyone stunned. When the match was wrapped up, the
Pakistan team sprinted around in front of their fans and paraded the
trophy – they are the first side to defend the cup, but none of it would
have been possible without their formidable pace attack. Wasim and Waqar
would be proud.Jamshed, the left-arm paceman, gave Pakistan the perfect start as they
attempted the seemingly impossible. With the first ball of the innings
Gaurav Dhiman, India’s trail blazing opener, chopped onto his stumps.
Then, the madness really set in. Cheteshwar Pujara was trapped by Anwar’s
first ball, although he appeared to have got slightly outside off stump,
before Rohit Sharma and Maynak Tehlan were castled by searing inswingers
and incutters. After two overs, they were 8 for 4. It was surreal.That wasn’t the end of it either as, after what seemed like an eternity
without a wicket (six balls) Ravikant Shukla was cleaned up by the ball of
the match; it pitched off stump and held its line. And there was still time for another
scalp before the players even left the field for the interval, when Anwar
had Debabrata Das caught and bowled, although again there was some doubt
as to whether the batsmen was out. Anwar found prodigious swing into the
batsmen and although he struggles to bowl an outswinger, today it didn’t
matter.
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Somewhat understandably, the intensity wasn’t quite the same following a
45-minute break, but the attack continued to pose plenty of problems for
the Indians and another wicket was only ever around the corner. Chawla was
shelled at first slip by Nasir Jamshed, but the fielder made up for that
miss by holding onto a gloved bouncer from Jadeja.Chawla and Pinal Shah at least put up some resistance, so much so that the
Indians were beginning to threaten the target. With the occasional streaky
boundary and scampered single the total edged past 50. The batsmen were
becoming more accustomed to the conditions and Pakistan’s fielders began
to show the strain with some fumbles.Shah has a first-class best of 217 not out so he can certainly bat, but
there was little he could do about the lifter from Akhtar Ayub, which
brushed the shoulder of the bat. With that, India’s bowlers were left with
too much to do. Akhtar finished the match in style with two wickets in
three balls.Among the wreckage stood Chawla, who had produced a fine all round
performance with his brave batting and mesmeric legspin. On any other day
he would have been running around the pitch with the World Cup grasped in his hand. But this wasn’t simply any other day. He tied the Pakistan batsmen in knots as the top order failed again, twice losing two wickets in an over. Only Rameez Raja showed any
meaningful resistance and, Chawla’s 4 for 8 was perhaps the shortest
surviving record in cricket history.As the teams headed for the change of innings, a quick finish was on the
cards. That is what we got, but as with yesterday’s Plate final, the
result was an amazing turnaround. You can never take your eyes off Pakistan; they have a history of producing the unexpected. Today’s result must surely come near the top of the list of the more incredible victories.How they were outPakistanJamshed Ahmed c Ahmed b Jadeja 18 (24 for 1)
Mohammad Ibrahim lbw b Jadeja 0 (25 for 2)
Ali Khan c Shah b Yomahesh 10 (39 for 3)
Ali Asad b Chawla 2 (49 for 4)
Riaz Kail b Chawla 0 (49 for 5)
Sarfraz Ahmed st Shah b Bipinbhai 15 (78 for 6)
Rameez Raja lbw b Sharma 25 (93 for 7)
Imad Wasim st Shah b Chawla 1 (103 for 8)
Anwar Ali c Pujara b Jadeja 17 (103 for 9)
Akhtar Ayub b Chawla 1 (109 all out)
IndiaGaurav Dhiman b Jamshed Ahmed 0 (0 for 1)
Cheteshwar Pujara lbw Anwar Ali 0 (5 for 2)
Rohit Sharma b Anwar Ali 4 (8 for 3)
Mayank Tehlan b Anwar Ali 0 (8 for 4)
Ravikant Shukla b Jamshed Ahmed 0 (8 for 5)
Debabrata Das c and b Anwar Ali 0 (9 for 6)
Ravindra Jadeja c Nasir b Anwar Ali 6 (23 for 7)
Pinal Shah c Sarfraz b Akhtar 16 (62 for 8)
Vijaykumar Yomahesh lbw b Akhtar 3 (71 for 9)
Parmer Bipinbhai b Akhtar 0 (71 all out)
