W.I U-19s Choke in WC Final

Fri, Mar 5, '04

The West Indies choked mightily in the finals of the ICC Under-19 World Cup against Pakistan, wasting a superb start and succumbing to the pressure with a string of crucial run-outs.

At the end of an exhilarating match at Dhaka's Bangabandhu stadium, Pakistan secured the trophy with a 25-run win but the Caribbean side will forever lament spitting the bit towards the end.

Chasing a target of 231, West Indies got off to a flyer with openers Xavier Marshall (26) and Tishan Maraj (32) putting on 69 in twelve overs. Captain Denesh Ramdin worked hard to prop up the middle order as the West Indians struggled under the lights and did such a good job that the target was still a run-a-ball with less than 10 overs to go.

Then the wheels fell off. Jonathan Augustus, Liam Sebastian and Rishi Bachan all succumbed to suicidal run-outs to leave Ravi Rampaul stranded on 24 not out from 19 balls.

Batting wasn't the West Indies only concern. Earlier, the bowlers allowed Pakistan to recover from 81 for four to what turned out to be a competitive total of 230. Asif Iqbal made 54 and Salman Qadir (son on leg-spinning legend Abdul Qadir) contributed 42.

FINAL SCORES:

Pakistan 230 for 9 off 50 overs (Asif Iqbal 54, Salman Qadir 42, Adnan Zaheer 33, Rishi Bachan 3-34, Mervin Mathew 2-35); West Indies 205 all out off 47.1 overs (Denesh Ramdin 36, Tishan Maraj 32, Tariq Mahmood 3-34, Jahangir Mirza 2-29).