India U-19 defeats Pakistan U-19 to claim the Asia Cup

India defeated Pakistan by 40 in the U-19 Asia Cup final at Abu Dabhi on Saturday.

After being put into bat, India started off well, with openers Bains and Herwadkar putting up a good partnership. Bains fell 3 short of a good 50, whereas Herwadkar scored 12. But the real match-changing partnership was between that of upcoming talents Vijay Zol and Sanju Samson. Both of them scored exactly 100 runs. While Vijay was more steadier, Sanju was the more aggressive one. This partnership drove India to a healthy score of 314 for the loss of 8 wickets in 50 overs. Though no one down the order actually made meaningful contribution, 23 extras did not help the cause for the Pakistanis.

Zia-ul-Haq,Karamat Ali and Zafar Gohar were the pick of the bowlers, as each of them took 2 each.

A good partnership is always expected while chasing a big score like this, but that is exactly what the Pakistanis couldn’t conjure up with. After losing wickets at regular intervals, they were in a spot of bother, as the scoreline read 88 for 4. But Sami Aslam joined hands with Kamran Gulam, and started the re-building process. But after a 93 run stand, Indian bowler Gani caught Sami off his own bowling, and it opened the floodgates as far as the Indians are concerned. Though Gulam continued to play aggressively to get a well deserved 100, he ran out of support from other end. Finally, the Pakistanis ended their innings with 274 on board.

India’s best bowler was Kuldeep Yadav, though he was a tad expensive. CV Milind was India’s next best bowler, as he gave away just 44 runs for 2 wickets.