Pakistan reached the final of the Under-19 World Cup 2014 with an exhilarating three-wicket win against England at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
Winning the toss, England began poorly as they lost both their openers scoring, leaving the team in tatters at 2/1. In fact they were still struggling at 6/119 when Karamat Ali took two wickets in as many balls in the 38th over.
England skipper Will Rhodes then played a fine knock with the bat scoring an unbeaten 76 to propell his team to 7/204.
Chasing a modest target of 205, Pakistan began steadily as the openers Imam-ul-Haq and skipper Sami Aslam made 41 inside eight overs before Aslam was adjudged LBW off Sayer’s bowling.
Then a procession of wickets followed as Pakistan were tottering at 4/57 and what had appeared merely a modest total started looking more and more daunting task. By now Pakistan had lost two of their leading run-scorer, Sami Aslam and Imam-ul-Haq along with middle-order players Hasan Raza and Kamran Ghulam.
Just when England looked on top, Saud Shakeel and Ameer Hamza put on 74 runs for the fifth wicket, but England bounce back when both fell quickly in consecutive overs.
Zafar Gohar who came at the crease with a fierce banter from England’s fielders, but it was Gohar who took the Pakistanis to their victory target with a career best 37 not out long with Amad Butt who chipped in with 26 not out.
