ICC U-19 World Cup 2020: Talented Pakistan mirror senior side’s woes against India in crushing defeat

 “I never think Pakistan will win against India” Pakistani sports writer Fatima Sajid quips when asked how much she rated her side’s chances ahead of the under-19 World Cup semi-final against India colts at Potchefstroom on Tuesday. She cannot be blamed for having a negative mindset. The general notion that India have perennially held the wood over Pakistan stems from the incredible 7-0 record the senior side holds over their arch-rivals in ICC ODI World Cups. At junior level, the story used to be different. Since the inception of the under-19 World Cup in 1988, India and Pakistan have locked horns at the youth level on ten occasions. In five of the first six encounters – 1988, 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2010 - India went on to lose against their neighbours before the tides took a dramatic turnaround.

Since 2012, India have beaten Pakistan in all youth World Cup matches played between the two, with the latest win in South Africa making the scoreline an even 5-5 after ten encounters in under-19 World Cups. In fact, since breaking the shackles with a win at Townsville in 2012, India have only lost once in an under-19 ODI against Pakistan – in 2013 at Dubai. The senior Pakistan side has also had little success- save the exceptional Champions Trophy final win in 2017 – against India in this time frame, winning four and losing seven. For the colts, it couldn’t really have been more embarrassing than the tumultuous loss in the 2018 World Cup semi-final game at Christchurch. Left to chase 273 after a Shubman Gill century, Pakistan folded for 69 all out with just three batsmen crossing the two-figure mark. On Tuesday at Potchefstroom, the new set of under-19 players seemed quite wary of a similar disastrous showing. After they lost two wickets inside the first 10 overs, Pakistan walked into a self-built shell and refused to peep out. In the 26th over, with the score on 96 for 2, Pakistan were treading more on the side of not collapsing than looking to actually win. The wicket of opener and half-centurion Haider Ali came as a result of the batsman looking to break free against the gentle part-time bowling of Yashasvi Jaiswal after wading through the tight overs from India’s main bowlers. Peak Pakistan soon broke through the shell. An awry run-out – yes, the very same one where their batsman decide it’s time to do a 22-yard race to the same end – began the slide although the impressive Mohammad Haris revived the innings a touch with a mini-cameo. At 146 for 4, Pakistan must have been eyeing a total around 250 when they decided their fight for the day had ended. The next six wickets fell for 26 runs as Pakistan conveniently folded for 172. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Divyansh Saxena then piled on Pakistan’s misery with an unbroken 176-run opening stand as an embarrassing 10-wicket win left Pakistan to choose between 2018 and 2020 for their worst ever performance against India in a youth ODI game. No knockout game in youth World Cups had seen a 10-wicket win prior to this. What will hurt Pakistan is the fact that they have had a good all-round tournament and a super impressive squad of players. Unbeaten so far, they were bullish against Scotland, meticulous against Zimbabwe and had Bangladesh – one of the four semi-finalists – on the mat at 106 for 9 before rain intervened to abandon the game. In the quarter-finals, they thumped a strong Afghanistan side to set up the semi-final clash with India. The quality in the Pakistan youth side is unmistakable. In four innings, they had six different half-centurion. Their pace attack finished with the most number of wickets – 28 in 5 matches – and had the best average (14.0) until the semi-finals of the World Cup. Overall, their bowling average before the semi-finals was only behind India and Bangladesh. Their middle-order (batsmen from positions 4-7) batting average of 38.22 is next only to India and Bangladesh. The strike rate from these guys is third-best among all the eight Super League quarter-finalists.

  Over the years, Pakistan’s batting has struggled in these tournaments. This time around, the batsmen stayed in sync with the bowlers. In Rohail Nazir, they had an experienced leader who had been at a similar tournament before in 2018. In the lead-up to the youth World Cup, Pakistan were also dominant in the format. They drubbed a hapless South African under-19 side 7-0 in a bilateral series in their backyard in mid-2019. Before that, Sri Lanka were handed a 3-2 defeat in their home. Their major blip came in the ACC Under-19 Asia Cup when they lost to Afghanistan and India last year. In the warm-up matches before the World Cup, they blanked Nigeria and Sri Lanka and then went on to make the semi-finals unbeaten. Their star players weren’t restricted to one or two names. Haider Ali (107 runs with one half-century) and Mohammad Haris (131 runs at 65.5 and a strike rate of 123.58) were amongst the runs as was Qasim Akram (average of 46.5). Mohammad Huraira made an instant impression after playing his first game in the quarter-finals against Afghanistan where he made 64 in 76 balls. Skipper Nazir joined the party against India in the semi-finals with a half-century of his own. With the ball, pacer Mohammad Wasim Jr began with an impressive five-wicket haul against Scotland in their first game of the tournament. Abbas Afridi (9 wickets at 20.22) and Tahir Hussain (7 wickets at 19.71) added three-wicket hauls against Zimbabwe while Mohammad Amir Khan, another in their never-ending production line of pacers, picked up seven wickets in the tournament at an average of 15.42.

None of those numbers mattered in the big semi-final clash with India where they mirrored the woes of their senior side when they play their ruthless neighbours. A Mumbai opener made a hundred in the World Cup 2019 clash between the senior sides at Manchester last year. At Potchefstroom, another Mumbai opener drove India’s chase with equally good composure. Pakistan’s teenagers were the exact opposite of their Indian counterparts in the big match. Their top wicket-taker in the tournament (Abbas Afridi) went at over seven runs per over. Only three batsmen – Nazir, Haider and Haris — went into double digits with the bat, similar to the 2018 under-19 semi-final clash between these sides. Thankfully here, the ones who did get a start showed better temperament to lend some respectability to the final score. There was the customary run-out and a tame dismissal to a part-timer adding distinct Pakistani flavours to another flop show against their arch-rivals and neighbours. As they bow out of the tournament, Pakistan will reflect on their disastrous showing in the big game and their youth ODI record against India that is quickly sliding downhill, down to where their senior team currently sits.