ICC Under-17 Asia Cup: 6th day Summary

There were two matches on the program for 20 July 2000, both to be played at Karachi. The tie showing obvious disparity in the relative strength of opposing teams, the matches were expected to be one sided. Still they were not supposed to be as low scoring as they came to be. From the age factor, the teams did comprise of schoolboys but the standards could have been move competitive.

The match between Bangladesh and Nepal was more of a farce. Designed to last 90 overs it finished in less then 20 overs causing disappointment to all and sundry. Bahrain's performance showed as its team had been breeding ducks instead of players. Having failed to face Bangladesh with confidence, the team crumbled for a petty score of 52 in 13.4 overs.

Except for Haroon Naseer who played an exciting knock of 35 in 29 balls, the rest fell like autumn leaves. Six of them being "ducks", required to pinch the leaves. Sharif ul Islam clinched 4 wickets for only 2 runs.

The victory target of 53 runs being peanuts for Bangladesh, the openers Nafees Iqbal (32) and Mohammad Ashraful (12), plus 9 extras made up the target in 6 overs only. Bangladesh thus achieved a glorious 10-wickets victory over Bahrain.

With alarming disparity in the standards of the two sides, the second match between Pakistan and Nepal also proved one sided.

Nepal took a disastrous start to lose 4 wickets for 14 runs and followed the trail to crumble for a total of 67 runs in 28.5 overs. Amit Shrestha was the only batsman to show the courage of scoring 23 runs. No one else except Mr. EXTRAS (19) reached double figures.

Pakistan shocked Nepal by handing them over a 10-wickets defeat in 15 overs. Opening batsmen Salman But (27) and Khalid Latif (32) made up the target with the help of 10 extras. Pakistan thus registered a splendid 10 wickets victory over Nepal.

To the dismay of the spectators both the matches finished by lunchtime, the consolation, however, being that they could enjoy the lunch at home rather than filling themselves with the vendor's stuff.

Having won four matches Sri Lanka has already reached the semi finals. Hopefully after defeating Nepal on Friday, Pakistan would be the 2nd team to jump into the Semis.