Pakistan and South Africa both signed off their ICC Under 19 Men’s Cricket World Cup seasons on a high note by winning in the final match of their respective tournaments on Thursday (February 3.).
Two-time champions Pakistan defeated Sri Lanka in the fifth-place playoff after both teams’ chances of lifting the trophy were cut short in the quarter-finals last week.
And in Antigua, South Africa finished seventh in the rankings following an intensely fought victory of two wickets against Bangladesh.
From the beginning, Pakistan had the upper hand in the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Ground, with openers Muhammad Shehzad and Haseebullah Khan dominating the Sri Lanka attack.
The duo took Pakistan up to 100 with no losing; Shehzad eventually made 73 from just 69 deliveries, but the captain vice Raveen de Silva.
However, Khan was joined in the middle by the excellent captain Qasim Akram. Together, they played the game to Sri Lanka, an impressive display.
Both players scored centuries, and they made Pakistan over 350. Khan was eventually gone after being was snatched by Matheesha Pathirana at the number 136.
Akram continued to be unbeaten in closing his side on 365-3. This gave their opponents the problematic task of claiming the fifth position.
The Sri Lankan response was chaos after only two overs with Akram playing havoc with the ball.
The talented all-rounder took openers Chamindu Wickramasinghe and Pawan Pathiraja, resulting in a total of one in the process and Shevon Daniel in within the middle.
Ranuda Somarathna also scored a duck.
Akram alone, reducing Sri Lanka to 4-15.
Then onwards, Sri Lanka was purely batting to impress. Captain Dunith Wellalage didn’t take it easy and hit an impressive 40 with five boundaries.
Vinuja Ranpul was similarly determined, hitting 53 not out and giving his side only scored two sixes during the game.
But it wasn’t enough, and Pakistan won by 238 runs after Treveen Mathew was smacked in the pad area with Zeeshan Zameer’s delivery.
And he was able to bowl away Sri Lanka’s Sri Lanka team inside 35 overs to take 5th place.
