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Pakistan Shaheens (153/9) defeat Sri Lanka A (148) by 5 runs in a thrilling encounter to advance to final of Rising Stars Asia Cup 2025

This Ghazi guy is making Saad Baig seem a better prospect ball-by-ball.

Even Haseebullah Khan seems better than him.
 
Irfan acting mad at the bowler when he is the idiot giving the full quota overs to all the pacers when they have been nothing but terrible tonight.
 
Umpire helped us. Even the last ball ubaid gave a full toss.

All his deliveries were going down legside wide
 
What kind of captaincy is this. Lankans were struggling against spinners and he did not give ball to Maaz the highest wicket taker for Pakistan so far. So many questionable decision by Niazi
 
RidiculousMan said:
View attachment 159553

Ball hit on this spot and Umpire gave out. Pakistan very lucky
Click to expand...

This was normal before DRS. One or two bad decisions effecting the result of almost every match. Sometimes it's hard to realize how much DRS has made cricket better. My only thing with DRS is that they should take it away from the players hand and just check every decision quickly and automatically.
 
Need to really think long and hard about these Multan Sultan players

Those who have been groomed by Rizwan will inevitably go for a toss when it really matters
 
Match ended up being way close to my liking considering how Pakistan had Sri Lanka under pressure. Rathnayake played an outstandings innings and almost won the game for Sri Lanka. Obaid Shah hopefully can learn from this, he almost give the game away.
 
Rare to see an all-green final in cricket but here we go. Although the semi-finals for both teams were patchy but it does feel like that the top 2 teams have deservedly made it to the final.
 
Pakistan Shaheens qualified for the final of the Men’s Asia Cup Rising Stars 2025 as they got over the line by five runs in a last-ball thriller against Sri Lanka A, while defending the 153-run total in the second semi-final at the West End Park International Cricket Stadium, Doha on Friday night

Shaheens will now face Bangladesh A in the final of the tournament on Sunday, 23 November at the same venue in a bid to win their maiden T20 iteration of this event, having triumphed in the 50-over format in 2019 and 2023.

In the successful defence of their total, Shaheens benefitted from the skill and guile of wrist-spinners Sufyan Moqim and Saad Masood, who returned combined figures of 6-30 in their eight overs and derailed Sri Lanka A’s momentum after they were 74-2 in 7.2 overs, as they lost 8-84 from thereon.

Towards the end, Sri Lanka A’s no.8 batter Milan Rathnayake, who struck 40 off 32 balls and was one of their three batters to enter double figures, threatened to take the game away from Shaheens after walking in to bat at 79-6 in the 10th over.

Rathnayake formed a 47-run stand with Traveen Mathew (4 not out, 12b), as the former struck five fours and one six in his outing. Requiring 46 runs in the last four overs, Rathnayake launched two fours in the 17th over and a four and six in 18th over to take 25 runs combined.

Pacer Ahmed Daniyal then delivered a six-run penultimate over to give Ubaid Shah 15 runs to defend. With three extras in the form of wides and a four via Rathnayake on the first two balls, Sri Lanka A seemed to be marching towards victory before Ubaid’s pin-point yorker pinned the left-hander leg-before on the third ball.

No.11 batter Garuka Sanketh was required to hit the last ball for six to give his team a triumph, which he failed to connect as Shaheens reaped the five-run win and a berth in the final.

Sri Lanka A’s opening batter Lasith Croospulle provided his team with a fiery start as he scored 27 off seven balls hitting two fours and three sixes and departed within the first nine balls of the chase.

Player of the match Saad – introduced in the fourth over – first struck to remove Nishan Madushka as Sri Lanka gathered 67 runs for two wickets in the Powerplay.

With Sri Lanka A marching at 10.5 runs an over and requiring a shade over run-a-ball, Sufyan Moqim thwarted their advance with two wickets in three balls in the eighth over also removing the set opening batter Vishen Halambage (29, 27b, 2x4s, 3x6s).

Shaheens then made further inroads in the Sri Lankan innings as Ahmed Daniyal removed their skipper Dunith Wellalage in the ninth over, while Sufyan removed Ramesh Mendis in the subsequent over.

Saad then landed his second blow in 12th over and third in 14th over to leave them 99-8, with the asking rate nearing nine as Rathnayake took centre stage.

For Shaheens, Sufyan and Saad’s bowling analysis read as 3-12 and 3-18, respectively, while Daniyal, Shahid and Ubaid picked up one wicket each.

Earlier, Pakistan Shaheens slipped to 62-5 after Sri Lanka has opted to bowl first. Opening batters Maaz Sadaqat (23, 11b, 2x4s, 2x6s) and Mohammad Naeem (16, 15b, 3x4s) put on 30-run stand in 3.4 overs before Sri Lanka bowlers got into the act.

Shaheens lost four wickets for 22 runs after being 40-1 in 4.3 overs, which brought top-scorer Muhammad Ghazi Ghori (39 not out, 36b, 2x4s, 1x6) and Saad Masood (22, 25b, 3x4s) to the middle. The duo put on 47 runs for the sixth wicket to push Pakistan past the three-digit mark.

Ahmed Daniyal (22, 8b) provided Shaheens the late flourish with three sixes, two of which came in the 19th over, while one in the last over as they posted a competitive 153-9 in the allotted 20 overs.

For Sri Lanka, Pramod Madushan picked up 4-29 in four overs, while Traveen Mathew returned figures of 4-0-22-3.
 
saabir said:
What kind of captaincy is this. Lankans were struggling against spinners and he did not give ball to Maaz the highest wicket taker for Pakistan so far. So many questionable decision by Niazi
Click to expand...
Not awful but pretty ordinary captaincy. He kept persisting with Ubaid and pacers at the start when they were getting tonked around then didn’t give Maaz, who has been the best bowler so far a single over. It could be said that given that Pakistan were on the top he was sticking with his best bowlers but that argument doesn’t have weight because spinners were doing really well throughout the day and Ubaid had been bowling pies. And in any case bowling a 6th bowler always gives a captain flexibility in death overs which he didn’t have when Ratnayake got going.

Overall it was quite a shoddy performance by Pakistan. They were only saved by great performances by Sufyan and Daniyal, Sri Lanka’s reckless batting, questionable umpiring and ironically Ghazi’s inability to hit big - for had he been a big hitter Pakistan might have perished for a smaller total.
 
DeadlyVenom said:
Win win situation.

If Bangladesh juniors win we will celebrate too.
Click to expand...

I think this Bangladesh A team have better top 3 than the national team. LOL.

Habibur Rahman Sohan
Jishan
Akbar Ali

These 3 are better than the top 3 in the national team.

Captain Akbar Ali was the captain when BD won the U-19 WC. He again lead BD to final. He is a possible future national team's captain.
 
Maaz Sadaqat must have been not fit to bowl, otherwise there was no reason to bowl him. Otherwise Irfan captaincy is indeed questionable, so is his batting, never seem to come good under pressure.
 
What a see-saw match it was. Looked like it would be an easy chase for SL after the first few overs but Masood & Sufiyan.

Very strange captaincy to not use Maaz at all and pacers got full quota despite being horrific.
Minhas should play in the next match over someone like Faiq to give a lefty bat in the middle order and another spinner option who can bowl in case Sufiyan/Masood have a bad day.
 
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