Shahid Yousuf shines for Pakistan: West Indies clinch U-15 world title

Karachi: West Indies were crowned as the new Under-15 World Challenge champions after defeating Pakistan by a close two-wicket margin in the final at Lord's on Thursday.

Put in bat, Pakistan were dismissed for 175 in 49.3 overs. The West Indies survived a Pakistan fightback to reach their target in 46.1 overs.

Pakistan also runners-up in the inaugural tournament in 1996.

Pakistan batsmen found going tough against some accurate West Indies bowling. To complicate matters, they failed to build partnerships after losing wickets at regular intervals.

Only Zulqarnain and Shahid Yousuf batted with some degree of confidence. Shahid struck two boundaries in his 52-ball 46 but Zulqarnain was more watchful and cautious while taking 90 balls to score 48 with three fours before being the eighth batsman out.

The two batsmen added 63 runs for the fifth wicket after the top four batsmen had returned to the dressing room at the score of 69.

Wickets were evenly shared by the West Indies boys.

West Indies, in their target chase, seemed to be on course for an easy victory when they reached 100 for two. But then they lost five wickets for 55 runs as Pakistan pulled things back.

However, Ramdin (12) and Santokie (13 not out) added 15 priceless runs for the seventh wicket. When Ramdin departed, just five runs were left which the West Indies batsmen scored without any further damage.

Shahid Yousuf, who batted excellently with the bat, led Pakistan's late charge by picking up three wickets for 16 runs from his six overs.