Gohar, Aslam help Pakistan rout UAE

Pakistan Under-19 105 for 2 (Sami Aslam 72*) beat UAE Under-19 104 (Chirag Suri 34, Gohar 5-18) by eight wickets
Scorecard
Left-arm spinner Zafar Gohar took five wickets as Pakistan Under-19 ran away to their third win on the trot, beating UAE Under-19 by eight wickets in Sharjah. Pakistan bowled UAE out for 104 before opener Sami Aslam powered them to their target with an unbeaten 66-ball 72 inside 20 overs.

Sent in to bat, UAE began well, with openers Chirag Suri and Shivank Vijayakumar taking them to 45 after seven overs. Gohar came on at this point and struck with his first delivery, getting Vijayakumar caught at slip for 22. Gohar took his second wicket in his third over, trapping Suri lbw for 34.

Wickets fell regularly after that, and only one of the remaining UAE batsmen got into double figures - Qazi Ayub, who made 11 - as Gohar and left-arm seamer Mohammad Aftab ran through their lineup to bowl them out in 30.3 overs. Gohar finished with figures of 5 for 18 in 10 overs, while Aftab took 3 for 43 in 8.3. Legspinner Karamat Ali, meanwhile, chipped in with two wickets.

Pakistan Under-19 captain Aslam - who, at 17, has already played 14 first class matches - set off in a hurry, starting the chase with three fours in the first over off Mavuru Aditya. UAE dismissed Hussain Talat and Imam-ul-Haq to leave Pakistan 35 for 2 after 7.1 overs but the left-handed Aslam continued to punish their bowling , scoring successive boundaries off Qazi Ayub and smacking Aditya for three successive sixes to go from 39 to 57.

Pakistan reached their target off the penultimate ball of the 20th over, with Saud Shakeel contributing 16 to an unbroken third-wicket partnership of 70.