Antigua: Qasim Akram produced one of the best individual performances the ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup has ever seen to inspire Pakistan to a 238-run hammering of Sri Lanka in the fifth-place playoff.
Akram hit a brilliant unbeaten 135 off just 80 balls to help his side register a mammoth 365/3, with opener Haseebullah Khan also scoring 136. He also took the wickets of all five of Sri Lanka’s top five in the second innings to finish with figures of 5/37 off ten overs to inspire a crunching win.
The 19-year-old’s heroics make him the first player in ICC U19 World Cup history to score a century and take five wickets in the same match.
Pakistan got off to a flying start as openers Khan and Muhammad Shehzad put on 134 for the first wicket in 24.1 overs.
The partnership between Akram and Khan added an eye-watering 229 runs in 25.3 overs, with the latter only falling three balls from the close for a brilliant 136 of his own – a second century of the tournament.
Sri Lanka’s chances of chasing down the giant target suffered a blow when Akram returned to the action with the ball in hand to dismiss opener Chamindu Wickramasinghe with the very first delivery of the reply.
And Akram’s extraordinary day continued as he first clean-bowled Shevon Daniel, then had Pawan Pathiraja trapped lbw before rattling the stumps of Ranuda Somarathne to leave Sri Lanka reeling on 15/4 after just 4.4 overs.
Sri Lanka briefly rallied, but Akram secured his five-wicked haul with the scalp of Sadisha Rajapaksa, and ended with figures of 5/37 off his ten overs.
The Sri Lankan reply did at least get to triple figures thanks to the excellent Dunith Wellalage (40) and a late cameo from Vinuja Ranpul (53*).
But the innings was wrapped up in just 34.2 overs when Traveen Mathew was trapped in-front off Zeeshan Zameer, with Sri Lanka still 238 runs shy of their target.
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