U19 Asia Cup: The Asian U19 tournament is all set to move into the knockouts phase with defending champions India in danger of making an early exit from the tournament. India's U19 side was defeated by Pakistan U19 recently on Sunday, December 10 as the Men in Green outplayed the Men in Blue in both batting and bowling departments. Pakistan chased down India's target of 260 runs with 8 wickets in hand as Azan Awais struck a hundred.
The win sees Pakistan on top of the points table of Group A, while the Indians are in second place after that loss. The defending champions' semifinal hopes have taken a hit. They play Nepal in their final group game and hope to storm through to the final four.
How can India qualify for the semifinals?
India can still qualify for the semifinals after the loss to Pakistan. Two teams from both - Group A and Group B will qualify for the semis and if India can maintain their spot in second place, they will go through. Currently, Pakistan are on top of Group A with 4 points from 2 games, while India and Afghanistan have 2 points to their name after 2 as many games.
The Indians have to play their final league game against Nepal, while Pakistan and Afghanistan face each other in the other match. Interestingly, both the games are scheduled to take place at 11 AM on December 12.
For India to qualify, they will have to beat Nepal and hope for Afghanistan to lose to Pakistan. This will help them qualify without the need for a net run rate (NRR). But if Afghanistan beat Pakistan, the Men in Blue will hope they don't win by a big margin as then Afghanistan can pip them on NRR. Currently, India have an NRR of 0.454, while Afghanistan have a worse NRR of 0.203.
If India lose to Nepal, they can still qualify but would need Afghanistan to lose to Pakistan at any cost in this scenario.
