Townsville: The mega Under19 World Cup 2012 turned out to be the biggest nightmare for Pakistan junior cricket stars as they finished the tournament being played in Australia at 8th position. The last thing that could have shattered the little hopes left in the young hearts was a defeat against minnows Bangladesh that they faced today by five wickets, that too very convincingly.
Pakistan’s mystery began right from the start when they lose the toss and were made to bat first in the overcast conditions, losing half of the side at the score of 81 in 24 overs.
However, excellent batting performance by Mohammad Nawaz and Shahid Ilyas at the end takes the total to a respectable and competitive target of 235.
In reply, Bangladesh batting unit looked in a good shape right from the beginning, opener Litton Das scoring the half century with Anamul Haque, the one down batsman, scoring a match winning century. He scored 128 runs off just 112 balls at an impressive strike rate of 114.28 hitting six sixes and five fours.
This was Pakistan’s worst ever performance in the U19 World Cup history and the team will return to homeland in two or three days with shattered hopes.