ICC Under-17 Asia Cup: 1st day Summary

Four matches were played on various Cricket Grounds in Karachi on Saturday 15 July 2000, the opening day of the tournament. Though, there were few spectators at the match centres, still the results of the matches created lot of excitement among the cricket fans.

Pakistan Vs Bangladesh

Pakistan and Bangladesh both being the full members of the ICC, the contest between them was the centre of attraction. The match ended in a nail biting finish.

The match was played at the National Stadium Karachi, the best cricket Venue in the city and was inaugurated by Mr. Ahmed Mian Soomro, the Governor of Sindh in a befitting ceremony.

Batting first Bangladesh scored 168 runs in 44.3 overs. The team Captain Nafees Iqbal was the highest scorer with 63 runs. Since Pakistan team comprised of young boys from all parts of the country who had not played before as a team, a target of 169 runs to win was a challenging one.

Pakistan lost 3 wickets for 73 runs when Suleman Qadir and Kashif Iqbal got into a solid partnership raising the total to 150. Pakistan needed only 19 runs to win when both Qadir (36) and Kashif (35) were out one after the other. It followed a dramatic collapse. The wickets tumbled successively reducing Pakistan to a stunning 167 for 9.

With 2 runs required in 4 balls for victory, it was anybody's game. Lucky for Pakistan, the last man Najaf Shah smashed the medium pacer Sharif for a four to end the excitement. Pakistan defeated Bangladesh by one wicket in a contest that thrilled the cricket fans till the end.

Sri Lanka Vs Singapore

The match commenced at the UBL Stadium with Singapore batting first. They opened the innings with Riaz Hussain and Anand Santhanam. Not being able to face Sri Lanka's onslaught, the Singapore team was out for 69 runs in 27.3 overs. Santhanam (13) and Renclum (21) were the only batsmen to reach double figures.

Chasing an easy target of 70 runs to win, Sri Lanka started badly by losing 3 wickets for only 13 runs. Later a winning partnership between Jeevan (40) and Prasad (7) raised Sri Lanka to 70 for 4 in 14.5 overs. Sri Lanka thus defeated Singapore by 6 wicket in the low scoring match.

Nepal Vs Kuwait

This match was between the countries in which competitive cricket has just taken its roots. Nepal won the toss and elected to bat in the match played at Asghar Ali Shah Stadium Karachi.

Being a raw team Nepal was all out for a total of 79 runs, which included 22 extras. Diltish and Prekash Sharma were the two players who reached double figures with 14 runs each.

Chasing a moderate target of 80 runs, Kuwait achieved it only for the loss of 3 wickets. Adeel (33) and Zeeshan (21) were the main scorers. Kuwait defeated Nepal by 7 wickets with absolute ease.

Saudi Arabia Vs UAE

The match was played at NBL Stadium Karachi. UAE won the toss and elected to bat first. Although they managed to score 66 runs for the loss of 4 wickets only, the team was out for 126 runs in 27 overs. Basit Butt was the chief scorer with 47 runs in 51 balls, followed by Mohammad Usman (23) and Abdullah Mazhar (27).

Facing a moderate target of 127 runs to win Saudi Arabia fought with courage but were all out for 117 runs just 10 runs short of the target. Rabea Zubair (34), Mudassar Faruqi (19) and Bilal Ahmed (10) plus 24 extras were the major contributions to Saudi Arabia's total. UAE won the match by 9 runs. Both the teams mostly comprised of expatriates from Pakistan, India and other Asian countries