ICC Cricket Under-19 2006 final: Pakistan seamers stun India

It was all about kids, teenagers. But it was still an India vs Pakistan contest.

It was all about kids, teenagers. But it was still an India vs Pakistan contest. More importantly, it was a World Cup final, albeit at Under-19 level, and was being telecast across the world, which guaranteed attraction. Pakistan Under-19s were bowled out by the Indian spinners, Piyush Chawla and Ravindra Jadeja, for a mere 109, allowing the Indian boys half-an-hour’s batting before the scheduled break at Premadasa. The Indian boys never recovered, and collapsed against the trio of Anwar Ali, Jamshed Ahmed, and Akhtar Ayub. Abhishek Mukherjee looks back at February 19, 2006, when a young Pakistani trio triggered one of the most dramatic collapses in the history of Indian cricket.

It was a keenly contested series, India’s 2005-06 tour of Pakistan. It started with Sourav Ganguly being retained as an all-rounder. The first two Tests were high-scoring draws on featherbeds. In the first, Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid fell 3 short of the then world-record opening stand of 413.

The third Test began in dramatic fashion, with Irfan Pathan taking a hat-trick in the first over. Pakistan recovered to 245 and took a 7-run lead before every batsman in the top seven went on to cross fifty for the first time in history. They clinched the series with a massive 341-run victory.

Pakistan also won the first ODI, but India struck back, clinching the series 4-1, bringing an end to a series played with the usual intensity of an India-Pakistan contest.

Note: Though one is supposed to write Under-19s after every team, I would omit them wherever I can to stop the Ctrl, C, and V keys of my keyboard from falling apart.

While all this was happening, teenagers across the world were busy in a different contest in a land not too far away. Placed in different groups, India topped Group C, winning every match, including hosts Sri Lanka.

The Pakistan boys made it to the next round but lost to a star-studded Bangladesh side in a Group A match: indeed, Bangladesh boasted of eight future international cricketers, including Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal.

The Bangladeshis were knocked out by the English boys in the quarter-final, who were in turn blown away by the Indians in the semi-final. India scored 292 for 4 before bowling out their opposition for 58.

Pakistan, on the other hand, had a sedate quarter-final against Zimbabwe; in the semi-final, however, in the semi-final, they scored 287 for 9 before bowling out Australia for 124 (a side that boasted of Moises Henriques, Usman Khawaja, Aaron Finch, David Warner, and Matthew Wade).

Both sides, thus, reached the final after resounding wins in the semi-final. The stage was set for a World Cup final featuring India and Pakistan, a mere 3 days after the grown-ups had played the last ODI.

Spinning a yarn

Premadasa usually assists spinners, and Sarfraz Ahmed (yes, the current Test star) decided to bat. It probably had as much to do with Imad Wasim’s bowling as not having to chase against Ravindra Jadeja and Piyush Chawla.

Nasir Jamshed, whose first 4 ODIs against India would later yield 53*, 112, 101*, and 106 (and whose fake Twitter profile would attain cult status), walked out to open with Ali Khan. Ravikant Shukla experimented with the occasional seam of Gaurav Dhiman for an over before falling back to the trusted pair of Yo Mahesh and Abu Nechim Ahmed.

Runs came quickly, and Shukla had to introduce Jadeja, the fourth bowler of the innings, in the fifth over. It took Jadeja four balls to strike: the ball was not very short, but Jamshed, after a brisk 19-ball 18, cut to Abu Nechim at backward-point. Two balls later Mohammad Ibrahim fell prey to his lack of foot movement, and was LBW.

Ali Khan chased one outside off that he probably should not have, and Pinal Shah made no mistake. By this time Chawla had arrived: he bowled Ali Asad when the batsman went for an ugly sweep, came inside the line, and missed; two balls later, got Riaz Kail with a googly. 49 for 5.

Rameez Raja Jr and Sarfraz brought some sanity to the situation. Shukla shuffled his bowlers quickly. He saw the pitch taking turn, and immediately replaced Abu Nechim with Mohnish Parmar, the Supersub (remember the law?). Parmar and Rohit Sharma bowled their off-breaks. Sarfraz and Rameez added 29 in 13 overs before the former fell prey to a doosra and was stumped. Rameez Jr fell as well, trying to sweep Rohit and missing. Little did he know his 25 was going to be the top score of the innings.

It was left to Anwar Ali, and though he hung around, the runs that mattered never came. Imad helped Anwar to take the score to three figures, but was caught off-balance when Pinal whipped the bails off Chawla. Anwar hit Jadeja to cover, while Chawla finished things off by getting Akhtar Ayub with a googly.

Between them, Jadeja (3 for 16) and Chawla (4 for 8) had 16.1-4-24-7. Chawla had, in fact, registered the best figures in an ICC Under-19 World Cup final. In less than a month he would make his Test debut.

Pakistan were bowled out for 109. In fact, they lasted only 41.1 overs, which meant that India would have half-an-hour’s batting before the stipulated break.

The pep talk:

How effective are those speeches delivered by coaches in innings breaks? How motivating are they? Mansoor Rana, eldest son of Shakoor who had played 2 ODIs in 1990, was in charge, and he certainly did his best to push the boys.

He told in the post-match press-conference: “They were very down, but I told them that in my experience I have seen this happen before. I said we had a chance to defend the score, but I didn’t really believe it — I only said it to raise their spirits…We thought that if we could get two or three early wickets we would have a chance. One guy was averaging over 100 but the law of averages said they were due to fail and that’s what I told the lads. I said that if we could grab a few early then swing the ball under the lights we could defend the total.”

Rana was talking about one Cheteshwar Pujara, easily the batsman of the tournament. Pujara had had a run of 66*, 47*, 19, 97, and 129* in the competition — 349 runs at 174.50 and a very-good-by-2006-standards strike rate of 82.

Seam and swing

Dhiman and Pujara walked out. Off-spinner Usman Malik, Pakistan’s Supersub in lieu of Rameez Jr, took field as well. It was not an imposing target. Surely Dhiman and Pujara would play out this half-an-hour cautiously?

The first ball from Jamshed Ahmed was outside off. Dhiman went for an arrogant stroke and chopped on to the stumps. 0 for 1.

Rohit survived an extremely close leg-before call off the fourth ball. Two balls later came the trademark Rohit on-drive, beating mid-on to the fence.

On came Anwar, to bowl to a baby-faced (but with eyes as intense as ever) Pujara. He started with a no-ball. Two balls later Anwar unleashed a vicious in-swinger — the kind they refer to as banana-swing. Pujara was trapped in front. The impact was outside off, but Billy Doctrove did not hesitate. 5 for 2.

Of course, they needed only another 105. Shukla walked out, there were more no-balls, and a single brought Rohit back on strike. Then came another of those banana-swings, starting outside off; just like Pujara, Rohit shouldered arms; it came off a good-length, and hit off-stump. 8 for 3.

Two balls later Anwar unleashed another of his specials. This time it pegged the middle-stump back, sending Mayank Tehlan to the pavilion. 8 for 4. Despite his no-balls, Anwar’s figures read 0.4-0-4-3.

At this point things started to look ominous for the Indians. Srivastava dug deep, playing out five balls from Jamshed. The fifth ripped through, hitting off and middle. 8 for 5.

Another no-ball followed from Anwar, but the next ball hurried on to Debabrata Das. It hit his pad, ricocheted, took the edge, and ballooned back to Anwar. 9 for 6.

The Indians sat in the pavilion, shell-shocked, almost unable to comprehend what was going on. 109 looked far, far away in the horizon. There have been four ducks. Jadeja returned to the pavilion, dragging his bat behind him.

“The match was decided in those three or four overs when we lost six wickets,” Indian coach Venkatesh Prasad, hero of many a battle against Pakistan, would later acknowledge in the press-conference.

Hope, then despair

The 45-minute break seemed too short. Once again Jadeja walked out, Chawla in tow. The pair decided to give it back. Sometimes they timed. When they did not, they found edges that resulted in singles.

The next wicket did not fall till the 8th over. Then Anwar produced a snorter that took off. Jadeja somehow managed to fend it off his face, and the ball flew to Nasir Jamshed (who else could have been the sole slip fielder?). The face, less rotund but more cherubic, broke into a grim celebration as he punched the air on his way to Anwar, who had just taken a five-wicket haul.

Chawla, standing at the other end, watched helplessly as his record had barely lasted an hour. Anwar, whose role model was, for some reason, Umar Gul, had taken the first five-wicket haul in an Under-19 World Cup final. Jadeja had scored 6, the highest among all the batsmen dismissed till then. 23 for 7.

Chawla kept his calm. He found an excellent partner in Pinal. The pair ran hard, converting nothings into ones, and found the occasional boundary.

Finally, after a spell of 7-2-24-2, Jamshed Ahmed got a breather. Sarfraz tossed the ball to Ayub. India had made their way into the sixties. Could they pull off an outside victory?

It took Ayub ten balls. The ball came off almost vertically. Pinal could probably have swayed away, but it took his glove, and Sarfraz came to the fray with his big gloves as the handful of Pakistani supporters in the stands erupted in excitement. 62 for 8.

Chawla knew it was too late to farm the strike. He hit around, they ran maniacally, and somehow 9 more runs were added. Then came the in-swing, and Yo Mahesh was leg-before. 71 for 9.

Parmar was no Pujara or Rohit when it came to wielding the willow. All Ayub needed was a fast, straight ball. He delivered exactly that two balls later, hit off-stump, and kept running, and running, and running… till the boys in green formed an ocean and engulfed him, for his 3 for 9 in 2.5 overs had finished things off just when it seemed the boys in blue would pull off a miracle.

Chawla, with 4 for 8 and 25 not out, was left dejected, but indeed, it was a battle won fair and square by Anwar, whose 5 for 33 decided the match in Pakistan’s favour. Even by the erratic history of their cricket, it was an outstanding win for Pakistan. It was a win as emphatic, as satisfactory, as ridiculous, as glorious as any.

What happened to the trio?

Anwar Ali is yet to play a Test as I write this article, and his international career (21 ODIs, 15 T20Is) has not yielded a lot of promise. Both Jamshed Ahmed and Akhtar Ayub played domestic cricket till 2013-14, but never made it big.

Brief scores:

Pakistan Under-19s 109 in 41.1 overs (Ravindra Jadeja 3 for 16, Piyush Chawla 4 for 8) beat India Under-19s 71 in 18.5 overs (Anwar Ali 5 for 35, Akhtar Ayub 3 for 9).

Boy Player of the Match: Anwar Ali.

Boy Player of the Series: Cheteshwar Pujara.

(Abhishek Mukherjee is the Chief Editor at CricketCountry and CricLife. He blogs here and can be followed on Twitter here.)

• 
• 
•