Pakistan Under-23 and Sri Lanka Under-23 booked their spots in the semifinals of the Asian Cricket Council’s Emerging Teams Cup on Wednesday (August 21), with easy wins over Nepal and Singapore respectively.
Pakistan U-23 rode on Babar Azam’s unbeaten century to seal a comfortable nine-wicket win against Nepal at The Padang ground in Singapore. Put in to bat, Nepal were bowled out for 156 in 50 overs, with Raza Hasan, the left-arm spinner, taking 3 for 21. That Nepal got to 156 was thanks to Subash Khakurel, the opener, who scored a 127-ball 78.
When Pakistan U-23 batted, Azeem Ghumman was dismissed for 15 by Basant Regmi, but Hammad Azam scored an unbeaten 41 (46 balls) to give good support to Babar, as the side coasted to victory and booked their berth in the knockouts. Azam hit 11 fours in his 118-ball innings.
At the Kallang Ground, Sri Lanka U-23 squeezed out a 13-run win against Singapore, after being bowled out for 191 in 48.5 overs. However, the bowlers kept things tight and restricted Singapore to just 178 for 5 to take the Sri Lankans through.
When the Sri Lankans batted, they were undone by a middle-order implosion against a disciplined Singapore attack. Mohamed Shoib, the right-arm medium-pacer, was the tormentor-in-chief as he claimed figures of 4 for 16 in just 8.5 overs. He was well supported by Chaminda Ruwan, who returned 3 for 33.
Sri Lanka U-23 were 38 for 2, but an 86-run partnership for the third wicket between Udara Jayasundera and Niroshan Dickwella seemed to set the innings back on track. However, Narender Reddy broke the stand, dismissing Dickwella for 34, and the Sri Lankan batting never really recovered. Jayasundera, having made 72, fell soon after and with Shoib running through the tail.
In response, Singapore were dealt an early blow when they lost Chettan Suryawanshi off the third ball of the innings. Runs were hard to come by as well and the second-wicket partnership between Andre de Lange and Ruwan labored for 52 runs in 115 balls. The stand was broken when Ruwan was sent back for 33. De Lange (23) and Kshitij Shinde (4) followed suit not too long thereafter, leaving Singapore four down for 78 in the 30th over. Anish Param and Timothy Singham then put on 79 runs to take Singapore closer to the target, but eventually, the batsmen couldn’t up their scoring rate and Sri Lanka U-23 ended victorious.
