ICC Under-17 Asia Cup: 7th day Summary

The four matches played at Karachi, Quetta and Hyderabad on July 21, 2000 constituted the last round of the pool matches in the prestigious Under-17 Asia Cup. By winning 4 of its matches Sri Lanka had already sailed into the semi-finals, while the remaining 3 teams had to emerge from today's encounters.

Pakistan was the first to do so, cruising into the semis by achieving a prolific 9 wickets triumph over Bahrain and leaving its opponent with zero points on the table. Batting first Bahrain were all out for 87 in 34.4 overs. Not being able to face the Pakistani youngsters' onslaught the wickets tumbled one after the other. Opener Haroon Naseer was the highest scorer with 15.

There were 4 ducks in Bahrain's innings as against only 3 boundaries. Mr. EXTRAS contributing a valuable 24 provided some respectability to Bahrain's total. Pakistan achieved the target only with the loss of one wicket. In his 48 not out scored in 39 balls, Khalid Latif smashed 9 fours. Khurram Ibrahim was the other batsman who contributed 21 precious runs.

Bangladesh was the 3rd team to step into the semi finals they had a weak opponent in Kuwait, whom they defeated by a gigantic margin of 10 wickets.

Batting first Kuwait scored only 89 runs. Dilesh Thurairatnam was the only batsman to withstand Bangladesh's lethal bowling. He played an invaluable innings of 46 in 115 balls, smashing 6 boundaries.

Facing an easy target of 90, Bangladesh make good work of Kuwait only in 19.4 overs. The openers Mohammad Ashraful (35) and Nafees Iqbal (49) piled up the required runs without the loss of a wicket, providing their team 10 wickets victory over Kuwait.

In the 3rd match Singapore wiped out Saudi Arabia by 5 wickets, to save itself the humiliation of falling in the group of teams with no points on the table.

Batting first Saudi Arabia mounted a reasonable total of 121 runs in 35.3 overs, after losing 5 wickets for only 23 runs on the board. Basit Butt was the highest scorer with 21. Singapore secured the required runs for the loss of 5 wickets in 32.3 overs. Siddharth Varma (34), Zeng Renchun (29) and Anand Santhanan (20) were the major architects of Singapore's victory.

The match between Malaysia and UAE played at Quetta hit the climax of this tournament. It ended into an exciting "tie".

Playing first Malaysia piled up a challenging total of 166 runs in 45 overs. Though losing 4 wickets for 46 runs, they picked up later to build up a good innings. By playing a defiant innings of 46 runs in 65 balls Abdul Asiz was the main scorer, with other batsmen contributing their due share. The 39 extras boosted up the total.

UAE took a dynamic start with its opener Amir Hussain playing the cavalier innings of 50 in 31 balls that contained 7 scintillating boundaries. With Amir Shahzad (21) Mohammad Abdullah (27) and other batsmen contributing their due share, UAE was absolutely sure of a victory. With a total of 18 exciting boundary this was one of the most enterprising innings of the tournament. The tail-enders, however, bungled up turning a hopeful victory into a situation where the match ended up in a "tie"

UAE could only manage 166 runs when the last wicket fell. Both teams sharing one point each, UAE still jumped into the semi-finals.

With the pool matches concluded the semi-finals commence from July 22, 2000. Pakistan and Sri Lanka with 8 points each, Bangladesh (6) and UAE (5) will be the teams to participate in the two semi finals.