Pakistan captain Saad Baig was a busy man on Thursday evening at Willowmoore Park in Benoni, rearranging his fields constantly and changing his bowlers in the Under-19 World Cup semifinal match against Australia. While it came with a reward of Pakistan bouncing back strongly, riding on a four-wicket haul from Ali Raza, it had an unintended consequence before the start of the final over, when the team needed to defend four runs or pick one wicket to win. ICC’s new rule forced Baig to adhere to the conditions and Pakistan lost by one wicket, thus losing an opportunity to book a date with India in the final.
Having previously introduced the penalty for slow over rates in T20I cricket, ICC had established an in-match penalty rule in ODIs in late 2022. According to the rule, for every over the fielding team falls short of the agreed cut-off time for the innings, after considering time allowances into play, they ought to have an extra fielder inside the ring. For example, if a team completes 48 overs within the scheduled cessation time of the innings, then they will have an extra fielder inside the circle for the last two overs, leaving only four fielders outside the ring.
On Thursday, Pakistan completed their 49 overs in the scheduled cut-off time and hence were forced to field an additional fielder in, with fine leg being brought into the ring. In the very first ball of the last over, Australia No. 8 Raf MacMilllan got an inside edge against the length ball outside off from Mohammad Zeeshan and the ball raced past short fine leg for a boundary.
Former West Indies cricketer Ian Bishop, who was on commentary, said that had Pakistan not breached the over-rate rule, they would have had a fielder at fine leg and that winning boundary would have only been a single.
Had Pakistan won against Australia, the ICC U19 World Cup would have witnessed a second final between India and its arch-nemesis. Pakistan had won the only other face-off against India in the summit clash, in 2006. Sarfaraz Ahmed, who later led the senior Pakistan side to 2017 Champions Trophy win against India, was the captain of that U19 team that won against the Boys in Blue, which comprised of Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Cheteshwar Pujara and Piyush Chawla.
Australia will now face India in the 2024 U19 World Cup final on Sunday. India gad defeated South Africa in a nail-biter to make their fifth straight final and ninth overall.
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