DUBAI: Sri Lanka on Thursday defeated Pakistan by 22 runs in the semifinal of the U19 Asia Cup and will now face India in the final, who beat Bangladesh in the second semifinal.
Chasing 148, Pakistan fell 22 runs short and stumbled over for 125 runs in 49.3 overs. Pakistan got off to the worst possible start after losing three batters for just 10 runs.
Struggling at 10-3, Muhammad Shehzad and Qasim Akram provided some resistance but failed to keep the run rate up. Shehzad departed for 30 runs and took 75 balls to get there. On the other hand, Qasim scored 19 from 49 deliveries.
Ahmed Khan contributed 36 runs down the order but no other player could come up with a significant contribution. Treveen Mathew was the pick of the bowlers as he took four wickets and gave only 14 runs from his 10-over spell.
Dunith Wellalage took three wickets while Raveen de Silva, Shevon Daniel, and Matheesha Pathirana also took a wicket each.
Earlier, Pakistan delivered a great performance with the ball as they restricted Sri Lanka to 147 runs. Yasiru Rodrigo remained unbeaten on 31 runs and was the top scorer alongside Matheesha Pathirana. Zeeshan Zameer took four wickets for Pakistan while Ahmed Khan and Awais Ali took two wickets each.
