I knew I could win the game, says Zaryab

I knew I could win the game, says Zaryab

Pakistan have sealed a spot in the Under-19 World Cup 2018 semifinal, courtesy Ali Zaryab’s unbeaten 74 in chase of 190 for a three-wicket win over South Africa. © ICC

Pakistan Under-19’s wall. That’s how Hasan Khan, the team’s captain, described Ali Zaryab after the No. 4 batsman played yet another match-winning knock in a high-pressure chase to seal a spot in the World Cup 2018 semifinal.

Even as wickets tumbled around him, Zaryab remained unbeaten on 74 and took Pakistan home in chase of 190 for a three-wicket win over South Africa, who refused to give up till almost the very end. It was the Zaryab’s consecutive half-century, after a similar knock of 59 against Sri Lanka in a chase of 189 helped Pakistan get to the quarterfinal.

“The wall for Pakistan Under-19 cricket team,” said Hasan after the game. “The way he batted today and in previous match as well, I hope he continues that form and do well in the next few matches as well.”

Pakistan found themselves in trouble at 111 for 5 and still needed 79 more when Saad Khan, the No. 7, joined Zaryab. The two batted together for a 65-run stand filled with sensible batting and calmness the top order would do well to learn from. Saad, and Muhammad Musa, who had played a crucial finisher’s knock against Sri Lanka, fell late in the chase but Zaryab took Pakistan home without any panic.

“I was only thinking about playing the 50 overs,” explained Zaryab. “If I play 50 overs, I can chase on my own. I was confident because I knew that I can finish on my own. My game is to start with singles and score heavily against bad balls, that was my game plan.”

Zaryab’s knock earned praise from the opposition skipper as well.

“Under the circumstances, it was a fantastic innings from him,” said Raynard van Tonder, the South African captain. “He batted really well and was quite calm under pressure. He showed great maturity to finish the game for them, so well done to him.”

Van Tonder’s counterpart was obviously pleased with Zaryab’s effort but agreed the job shouldn’t have been made that difficult.

“We could have finished it earlier and more easily,” he assessed. “But it’s a learning experience for all of us. Hopefully we don’t repeat them in the next match. Exceptional bowling once again. The way they bowled today was outstanding.”

The next match for Pakistan will be against the winner of India and Bangladesh, leaving a potential India v Pakistan clash in the semifinal. Hasan was not bothered who would progress to meet his side.

“Not really, as I said at the start of the World Cup, any team can do anything,” he said. “We’re looking forward to the match, we’re not worried about which team we’re facing, we’ll stick to our basics and hopefully we’ll do well.”

On the other hand, van Tonder rued yet another top-order collapse. Apart from their first match against Kenya when they scored 341, South Africa have been 112 for 5 against Windies, 76 for 4 against New Zealand and now 135 for 6 against Pakistan.

“Our top order didn’t step up today,” he said. “I believed fully that they are going to score some runs but unfortunately they didn’t. Our middle order batted quite well to get us into a decent position. I think we were about 20 runs short, if we could have got 20 runs somewhere, we could have been quite close of winning this.

“As a batting unit we haven’t really stood up. I felt only in the Kenya game we batted well, but we got ourselves into trouble with the bat every game.”

South Africa’s dreams of winning the tournament have ended, but there are learnings van Tonder takes back.

“Today’s game, playing in a quarterfinal on TV, lot of learnings and experiences going into the future if we get into the same situation again,” he said. “I’ve learned as a captain a lot and the team also learned a lot. For me, we haven’t really played on TV, so it’s about dealing with the pressure of other people looking at you from all over the world.”