Bulawayo, Feb 2: Young Kanishk Chouhan showed his all-round prowess as India comfortably outclassed arch-rivals Pakistan by 58 runs in a Super Six encounter to qualify for the semifinal of the ICC U-19 World Cup here on Sunday.India will meet Afghanistan in the semifinal while England and Australia will play in the other last-four encounter.
It was all-rounder Kanishk, whose quickfire 29-ball-35 and a 50-run stand for the eighth wicket with Khilan Patel (21 not out off 15 balls) took India U-19 to a decent 252 in 49.5 overs.
However, for Pakistan to qualify for the semi-finals on account of better run-rate, they needed to reach 253 in 33.3 overs but their batters didn’t seem interested in making a match as they managed 167 for 4 in 33.3 overs before finally getting bowled out for 194 in 46.2 overs.
In the bowling department, it was Kanishk, who basically stopped the Pakistan team on its tracks with figures of 1 for 30 in 10 overs which included an astounding 40 dot balls.
With pitch assisting spinners, left-arm spinner Khilan Patel (3/35 in 9.2 overs) and skipper Ayush Mhatre (3/231 in 8 overs) also choked the run flow throughout the middle overs.Pakistan’s Asia Cup hero Sameer Minhas was dismissed by a Henil Patel off-cutter and the remaining batters strangely displayed a defensive mindset.
“There was a good start but in the middle, the ball was spinning. The way KC (Kanishk’s nickname) batted brilliant. Vedant (Trivedi) was batting well in the nets, so I was confident in him. Boys were contributing. Pakistan batters batted well in the first 25 (overs), after that the spinners bowled really well. We are looking match by match. Just want to win the semi-finals,” skipper Mhatre said after the match.
Earlier, Kanishk and Khilan added 50 runs in just 5.1 overs to provide a final flourish after Vedant’s patient 68 off 98 balls helped them lay a platform.