Afghanistan to battle Pakistan in final

AFGHANISTAN will face Pakistan in the ACC Under-19 Youth Asia Cup final tomorrow after coasting past Nepal by seven wickets in the second semi-final yesterday.

Beaten by India in the semi-finals last year, Afghanistan went one step further at the Kinrara Oval as they look to repeat their group stage win over Pakistan on Nov 10 in a tournament which has already seen several surprise results.

This also includes Nepal's stunning win over three-time champions India in the group stage but Afghanistan proved the stronger of the two surprise semi-finalists.

After losing the toss and being put into bat, Nepal struggled to stem the flow of wickets despite Anil Kumar Shah belting 50 runs off 57 balls.

But no other Nepal batsmen reached double figures as they were bundled out for 103 in 28 overs with Mujeeb Ur Rahman claiming six wickets for 28, including all of Nepal's top-five batsmen.

Rahmanullah Gurbaz led Afghanistan's reply as they took just 20.3 overs to reach 108 for three despite having to wait out a rain delay when just 10 runs from victory.

Gurbaz hit nine fours and two sixes in his 65-ball knock before falling to Sandeep Lamicchane, who on Tuesday claimed five wickets in Nepal's win over Malaysia to book a semi-final spot.

Darwish Abdul Rasool, however, hit two successive sixes to take Afghanistan over the line and into their first major Under19 final against Pakistan, who edged Bangladesh by two runs under the Duckworth-Lewis method yesterday.

Pakistan will be playing in their third final in four editions on Sunday after being declared joint-champions with India in 2012 when the final ended in a tie before going down by 40 runs to India in the 2014 final.

Prior to their elevation to Test status, Afghanistan won the ACC Under-19 Elite Cup in 2011 and 2013 and the ACC Under-19 Premier League title in 2014 and 2015.