Favourites India were dumped out of the Under-19 World Cup by arch-rivals Pakistan who beat them by five wickets in a low-scoring semi-final match at the Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka on Sunday.
Pakistan overhauled the modest Indian total of 169 in 44.5 overs although not without some drama as they were struggling at 83 for five in the 28th over.
But Tariq Mahmood, who scored an unbeaten 45 and Fawad Alam (43 not out) took their side to a comfortable win in the end.
Pakistan will now meet the winner of the England-West Indies semi-final match in the final on March 5.
Earlier, the Indian batsmen failed to make optimum use of a good batting track as they were all out in 47.3 overs.
The Pakistani bowlers, four of whom took two wickets each, struck at regular intervals as India struggled to get a partnership going.
In-form opener Shikhar Dhawan (8) was the first to go when Khalid Latif caught him off seamer Ali Imran in the sixth over. Dhawan had scored 497 runs with three centuries and one fifty in this tournament at an average of 99.40 before today's match.
Praful Waghela (0) departed in the very next over as India were reduced to 24 for two.
Opener Robin Uthappa, who was struggling for runs in this tournament, then added 49 valuable runs for the third wicket with Rakesh Solanki before the latter was run out after making 21.
Two overs later Uthappa joined him in the pavilion when he fell to off-spinner Salman Qadir after making 33.
Dinesh Karthik, stand-in skipper in the absence of Ambati Rayudu who sat out with a one-match ban, did not last long as he too was dismissed by Qadir. The Pakistani bowler, son of legendary leg spinner Abdul Qadir, ended with figures of 2-27 in his 10 overs.
Pakistan continued to apply the brakes on the famed Indian batting, which had amassed 316 against Sri Lanka in their last match.
But for Sunny Singh's 25 and Abhishek Sharma's quick fire 21 not out off 26 balls, the Indian innings would have folded up inside the 150-run mark.
Scorecard:
India Under-19:
R Uthappa c Amjad b Qadir 33
S Dhawan c Khalid b Imran 8
P Waghela lbw b Afridi 0
R Solanki run out (Afridi) 21
S Raina c Haider b Mahmood 17
D Karthik c Latif b Qadir 7
S Singh b Amjad 25
G Dhiman c Qadir b Mahmood 13
A Sharma not out 21
P Gupta b Imran 4
R Singh c Qadir b Afridi 1
Extras: (b:0, lb:6, w:9, nb: 4) 19
Total: (all out in 47.3 overs) 169
Fall of Wickets: 1-23, 2-25, 3-73, 4-80, 5-92, 6-113, 7-135, 8-147, 9-166, 10-169.
Bowling: R Afridi 8.3-0-31-2, R Afridi 9-0-38-2, M Amjad 10-0-32-1, S Qadir 10-0-27-2, T Mahmood 10-1-35-2.
Pakistan Under-19:
K Latif lbw b Dhiman 1
A Zaheer c Sharma b Gupta 18
J Mirza lbw b R Singh 9
U Saeed b Sharma 19
S Qadir c Karthik b R Singh 24
T Mahmood not out 45
F Alam not out 43
Did not bat: Z Haider, R Afridi, M Amjad, A Imran.
Extras: (b:0, lb:8, w:3, nb:1) 12
Total (for 5 wickets in 44.5 overs) 171
Fall of wickets: 1-3, 2-20, 3-48, 4-68, 5-83.
Bowling: G Dhiman 8-0-34-1, RP Singh 10-2-25-2, P Gupta 7-2-24-1, S Raina 10-1-34-0, A Sharma 8.5-1-43-1, R Solanki 1-0-4-0.
