Divyansh Saxena takes a stunning catch to dismiss Mohammad Haris in U19 World Cup semi-final

India U19 cruised to the finals of the 2020 ICC U19 World Cup by thrashing Pakistan U19 by 10 wickets. The Boys in Blue locked horns with their arch-rivals Pakistan in the semi-final at Potchefstroom on Tuesday, and it proceeded to turn into a one-sided affair.

At the same time of writing, the opening duo of Yashasvi Jaiswal [75*] and Divyansh Saxena [49*] had accumulated 106 runs for the first wicket in their pursuit of the total of 172. Pakistan batted first and despite half-centuries from skipper Rohail Nazir and Haider Ali,  could manage just 172 in 43.1 overs. 

And, that wasn’t just because of the immaculate bowling by the Indians or reckless strokes played by the Pakistanis, it was also because of some outstanding bit of work in the field by the Indian colts. And, the spearhead of the fielding unit was certainly Divyansh Saxena.

What a catch by Saxena#INDvsPAK pic.twitter.com/ezJdQzVJno

— Cric.news (@_Cricnews_) February 4, 2020

Divyansh Saxena’s stunning catch paved way for the eventual Pakistan collapse

Pakistan were going along nicely with Rohail Nazir coming into his own with a patient half-century and Mohammad Haris threatening to take the attack to the Indian bowlers. Haris had stroked a six and a four off Ravi Bishnoi during his 15-ball 21 innings and was looking to do the same when he slog-swept a flighted delivery from Atharva Ankolekar [1-29] but Saxena had other ideas. 

The left-handed opener gave an account of how good a fielder he is when he made a full-stretched drive to claim a stunner of a catch at deep square-leg. Saxena was justifiably ecstatic after taking the catch and he then proceeded to silence the Pakistani crowd by placing a finger on his lips.

That catch was Divyansh Saxena turned out to be the turning point of the game as Pakistan proceeded to lose their last six wickets for a mere 26 runs with Kartik Tyagi [2-32] and Sushant Mishra [3-28] polished off their lower middle-order. Saxena then backed up his outstanding fielding effort with gritty innings, playing an ideal foil to the nonchalant Yashasvi Jaiswal.

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