EAST LONDON: Arafat Minhas’ fine bowling backed by a half-century from Azan Awais steered Pakis­tan to a five-wicket victory over Nepal in the ICC U-19 World Cup here at Buffalo Park on Wednesday.

This was Pakistan’s second consecutive win at the global event after the green-shirts in their opening Group ‘D’ match comfortably beat Afghanistan by 181 runs on Saturday at the same venue.

Batting at number four, Azan struck an unbeaten 63 off 82 balls to help Pakistan U-19 successfully chase 198 in 47.4 overs for the loss of five wickets.

Pakistan openers Shamyl Hussain (37) and Shahzaib Khan (37) had set the foundation for the successful chase through a solid 80-run partnership in 21.2 overs before the team lost four wickets — those of openers, Arafat and captain Saad Baig — for the addition of only 24 runs.

Azan, who was later named man-of-the-match, and Ahmad Hassan (29 off 37 balls) added 64 for the fifth wicket to help their team get close to victory. Haroon Arshad (15 not out) accompanied Azan when the match ended.

Nepal’s Aakash Chand picked up three wickets for 34 in nine overs.

Earlier, Arafat took three wickets to help Pakistan dismiss Nepal for 197 in 50 overs after their captain Dev Khanal elected to bat first.

Only opener Bipin Rawal (39) made a noteworthy contribution while Deepak Dumre (26) and Khanal (23) could not last long as Arafat (3-23), Ubaid Shah (2-48 off eight overs) and Ahmed (2-12 off three overs) restricted Nepal.

Pakistan now in their next group game face New Zealand on Saturday at the same venue.

Meanwhile, West Indies beat Scotland by five wickets in their group ‘B’ match in Potchefstroom.

Chasing 206, West Indies came home as wicket-keeper/batter Jewel Andrew (64 not out) top-scored with 14.5 overs to spare.

In Kimberley, Sri Lanka thumped Namibia by 77 runs.

After making a paltry 133 all out in 37.5 overs as Supun Waduge (56 not out) top-scored, Sri Lanka bundled out Namibia, whose decision to field first backfired, for 56 in 27 overs.

Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2024