At the Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo, India defeated fierce foe Pakistan by 58 runs to secure the top spot in their Super Sixes group and a spot in the ICC Under-19 World Cup 2026 semifinals. After winning the toss, Pakistan sent Ayush Mhatre’s team in to bat, knowing that it would need to win by a sizable margin to surpass India’s Net Run Rate. India lost three wickets in four balls to Mohammad Sayyam and Abdul Subhan in an incredible stretch of play that saw Aaron George and Vaibhav Suryavanshi fall along with Mhatre. However, India’s innings was salvaged by a brilliant fifty from Vedant Trivedi.
Trivedi, who had not been among the runs till this point in the competition, batted calmly and put on partnerships with Vihaan Malhotra, Abhigyan Kundu, and RS Ambrish to keep India fighting. The combined effort was sufficient to help India reach a competitive total, even if all three would fall short of personal benchmarks. With helpful cameos, Kanishk Chouhan and Khilan gave the innings a final flourish, and India finished with 252 all out. Due to NRR considerations, Pakistan had to reach its goal in 33.3 overs to advance to the semifinals. Henil Patel dismissed Sameer Minhas, Pakistan’s best batsman, for nine early in the chase.
After that, there was an odd stretch of play in which Pakistan appeared to bat for victory without taking its NRR into account. Pakistan was still around 100 runs short of the target by the time the 33.3 over mark approached, despite Usman Khan scoring a half-century and Hamza Zahoor and Farhan Yousaf making respectable contributions. With the ball, Kanishk Chouhan was especially excellent, taking one for thirty in his ten overs. Following Usman’s removal to Mhatre (one of his three wickets), Pakistan collapsed from 159 for four to xx all out, resulting in a 58-run loss and confirming its elimination from the competition.