Pakistan coach reveals the reason behind their humiliating semi-final loss to India U-19

The Pakistan U-19 dreams came to a halt, as they found a rampaging Indian side in the semi-finals of the U-19 World Cup in New Zealand. India rode on the right-handed Shubman Gill’s innings against arch-rivals in the semi-finals. While a steady partnership was ongoing between skipper Prithvi Shaw and the left-handed Manjot Kalra for the first wicket, Pakistan batsman Muhammad Musa found the breakthrough with a run-out. Enter Shubman Gill, who rampaged the Pakistan bowlers to get off to a flyer of a start for the Indian side.

The right-hander remained unbeaten on 102, as the team lost nine wickets scoring 272 runs in the 50 overs. The target looked gettable, but the Indian bowlers upped their game while Pakistan’s batsmen were left clueless in the chase.

Pakistan’s chase was non-existent: 

After losing their first wicket for ten runs, Pakistan never looked like they were in the chase while losing their second and third wickets after putting only 20 runs on board. Ishan Porel skimmed past Pakistan’s top order as he picked up four top-order batsmen as his wickets.

Shiva Singh and Riyan Parag took the other wickets as the arch-rivals of India were dismissed for a total of 69 runs, playing only 30 overs of their innings.

Nadeem Khan talked about the humiliating loss:

Following the match, Pakistan’s coach Nadeem Khan revealed the bizarre reason behind their loss to arch-rivals India.

“We were confident that it would be a close match but as the match progressed and our batting went down for 59 it made one wonder if there was a magic spell on the team,” Nadeem said.

“It appeared as if our batsmen had no idea what was happening out on the field or how to tackle the situation and pressure.” added the Pakistani U-19 coach before he appreciated the gestures from the Indian U-19 coach Rahul Dravid.