Afghanistan U19 vs Pakistan U19, 3rd Place Playoff - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

Series: ICC Under 19 World Cup, 2018 Venue: John Davies Oval, Queenstown Date & Time: Feb 01, 10:30 AM LOCAL

Afghanistan will bank on their bowlers to do the job again. © Getty

MATCH ABANDONED!There has been plenty of rain and the officials saw no point it waiying. The match been called off and Pakistan end the tournament on the third place.

third place play-off is unlikely to start on time. Umpires will continue to assess the situation and we will keep you updated

- the Afghanistan and Pakistan camps look ahead to their 3rd place play-off in Queenstown 🇦🇫🇵🇰

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Afghanistan and Pakistan, who lost their respective semifinals to Australia and India, will lock horns in the third place play-off fixture. Afghanistan, one of the form teams of the tournament, slipped to a six-wicket defeat versus Australia while India walloped their arch-rivals, Pakistan, by 203 runs in the other semifinal.

Pakistan will have to sort out familiar problems with their batting. Among their batsmen, only Ali Zoryab, their best batsman in the tournament, and Rohail Nazir have compiled fifty-plus scores so far in the World Cup. Hasan, the captain, who bowls left-arm spin and bats down the order, has the third highest batting average. In the semifinal game versus India, batsmen didn't show the required temperament to chase down a big total and capitulated to be bowled out for a paltry 69.

Pakistan's fielding too needs to improve as they missed a slew of chances including that of Prithvi Shaw and Shubhman Gill. The one area where they have done well is their bowling. Shaheen Afridi, the 6'5" left-arm pacer, has bagged 12 scalps so far. Muhammad Musa, the pacer, and Hasan have taken seven wickets each.

Afghanistan, on the other hand, have played with a sense of adventure to overcome fancied sides like Pakistan, Sri Lanka and New Zealand. The way the spin duo of Mujeeb Zadran and Qais Ahmad breezed through New Zealand's batting line-up to secure a massive 202-run win in the quarterfinals made the cricketing landscape sit up and take notice. Qais, the legspinner, is also the leading wicket-taker of the tournament with 14 scalps so far.

Even the batsmen have put up some good performances. Ikram Ali Khil (185), Darwish Rasooli (155), Ibrahim Zadran (186), Bahir Shah (108) and Azmatullah Omarzai have all made timely contributions. However, they would like to put behind their semifinal loss versus Australia where they crashed to 181 all out.