India rode on Shubman Gill's ton and Ishan Porel's 4/17 to defeat Pakistan by 203 runs in the second semifinals at Christchurch to set up the finals clash with Australia. India who remain unbeaten in the tournament, will aim to finish the campaign off in style as they defeated their arch-rivals with ease.
Opting to bat after winning the toss, Gill's 102 runs off 94 balls propelled India to 272 in the first innings of the match and no later on it was Ishant Porel who helped Team India's attacking unit bundle out Pakistan out for a meagre score of 69. India reach the ICC U-19 World Cup finals for the sixth time.
It was a clinical performance from the Rahul Dravid coached Team India. It was expected to be a nail-biter but there was no contest in the end as Pakistan crashed to an abject defeat.
Gill, who was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders for Rs 1.8 crore in the Indian Premier League players' auction, had hit a match-winning 86 in the quarterfinals against Bangladesh. He is the team's leading scorer with 341 runs.
Earlier, it was openers Prithvi Shaw and Manjot Kalra's 89 run partnership which got the boys in blue off to a flying start but the skipper was run out for 41. It did not take much time before Kalra was sent back after being dismissed by Muhammed Musa, just three runs short of his half-century.
It was Gill who stood strong and helped the Prithvi Shaw led Team India stride forward. The middle-order batsmen had a mini-collapse as Harvik Desai, Riyan Parag and Abhishek Sharma were all dismissed by Arshad Iqbal.
However, Gill managed to stick on and with the help of Anukul Roy's (33), India set a target of 272 runs for Pakistan to chase. Gill managed to toy with the Pakistan bowling unit as he delivered a master class in the second semifinals.
Pakistan's fielding can be one of the reasons for their defeat as they dropped absolute sitters, missed a number of chances to run out the Indian batsman and plenty of no-balls to make the scenario worse.
The defeat was Pakistan's heaviest (in terms of runs) in a U-19 World Cup match. For three-time champions India, seamer Ishan Porel grabbed four wickets for 17 runs while spinners Shiva Singh and Riyan Parag took two wickets apiece to rock the Pakistan run chase.
Pakistan were reduced to 20 for 3 in the eighth over with Porel removing their top three batsmen and they could not recover from there under a relentless attack from an Indian pace battery and a spin troika.
Only three Pakistani players could reach double-digit scores with Rohail Nazir hitting 18.
The Indians also fielded superbly with Shivam Mavi and Prithvi Shaw pulling off outstanding catches at fine leg and slip respectively.
Pakistan, however, were sent packing back one after the other as Ishan Porel collected four wickets in 6 overs. Porel's 4/17 helped the men in blue bundle out Pakistan with ease.
Bowler's Shiva Singh's 2/11 and Riyan Parag 2/5 made the task simpler for the Prithvi Shaw led Team India as they racked up the batsmen for a meagre 69 runs. Abhishek Sharma and Anukul Roy collected a wicket each as well.
India will now face Australia in ICC U-19 World Cup finals on February 3.
