I had planned to take five wickets against India: Pakistan U19 pacer Zeeshan Zameer

In the ongoing ACC Under-19 Asia Cup, India suffered their first defeat at the hands of arch-rivals Pakistan on Saturday, December 25. India will now play their third match on Monday against Afghanistan. It will be a must-win contest for the Indian team.

In the game against Pakistan, India lost the toss and was asked to bat. The Indian innings suffered a massive collapse as, by the end of the 8th over, India lost four wickets. However, Harnoor Singh’s 46 off 59 balls and a half-century by Aaradhya Yadav helped the team reach a score of 237 runs in 49 overs.

Zeeshan Zameer, who opened the bowling for Pakistan picked a fifer and gave away just 60 runs. After the match, Zameer mentioned how he had planned to take a fifer against India.

“I thank Allah for helping me. I had planned to take five wickets against India and Alhamdulillah, I was able to achieve it,” Zeeshan said after the match.

Along with Zeeshan Zameer, Muhammad Shehzad also played a crucial role for Pakistan

Pakistan also had a similar start to that of India. Rajvardhan Hangargekar dismissed Pakistani opener, Abdul Wahid, for a duck. Maaz Sadaqat and Muhammad Shehzad added 64 runs for the second wicket before Sadaqat departed after scoring 29 runs off 45 balls.

Batters in the middle-order made some significant contributions with the bat. Ahmad Khan made 29 runs off 19 balls. Pakistan needed seven runs of the last over bowled by Ravi Kumar. Kumar picked the wicket of Zameer on the first ball. On the next four balls, Pakistani batters scored six runs. Ahmad scored a boundary on the last ball and won the match for Pakistan.

Shehzad, who won the player of the match award, mentioned that it was his dream to contribute in a big match and he achieved that by playing a match-winning knock.

Pakistani captain, Qasim Akram appreciated the way the players delivered for the team in this game. He said:

“Fast bowlers started the proceedings well and then spinners complimented in the middle-overs. We had planned that the batters would stick to the crease and play to the end. And that is exactly what happened.”