LINCOLN, New Zealand (CMC) – West Indies Under-19s were unable to sustain their impressive early pressure on Pakistan’s batsmen and the former champions marched to a fighting four-wicket victory in their ICC Under-19 World Cup semi-final yesterday.

Sent to bat at Bert Sutcliffe Oval, the young Windies compiled 212 for eight off their 50 overs and Pakistan rallied from a perilous 49 for four in the 20th over to secure victory at 213 for six off 48.3 overs, with Hammad Azam stroking a match-winning 92 not out.

Pakistan’s opponents in Saturday’s final will be decided when Australia play Sri Lanka in the second semi-final tomorrow (tonight Caribbean time).

West Indies will play-off for third place on Friday against tomorrow’s second semi-final losers.

A century partnership between prolific Kraigg Brathwaite and captain Andre Creary had earlier rallied West Indies U19s after left-handers Trevon Griffith (0) and John Campbell (1) fell cheaply to leave them in early strife on seven for two in the fourth over.

Brathwaite and Creary gathered their first fifty runs off 65 balls but their momentum slowed in the second phase of their partnership and when Creary fell for a 79-ball 41, caught on the boundary, the run-rate stood at a moderate 3.6.

Yannic Cariah (9) departed similarly soon after, trying to accelerate the run-rate.

Brathwaite, the tournament’s leading scorer, was eventually run-out for 85 off 116 balls at 173 for five in the 44th over.

The watchful right-hander stroked six boundaries, including two bossy shots early in his innings that sped through the cover field from exquisite timing.

Brathwaite cruised to fifty off 58 balls with five boundaries but did not sustain that fluency in scoring as his next 58 balls produced only 35 runs.

His Barbadian colleague Shane Dowrich ignited the young West Indians’ innings as he lashed a resolute 55 off 49 balls with three fours and one six that crucially dragged the score past the 200-mark.

Dowrich brought up his fifty with a towering six over long on.

Akeem Dewar, with 11 not out, was the only other batsman getting to double figures as pacer Sarmad Bhatti (2-37) and spinner Raza Hasan (2-41) shared four wickets for Pakistan.

Faced with defending a small target, West Indies needed a strong start and achieved it when tall pacer Jason Holder snared two early wickets and his new-ball partner Nelson Bolan and off-spinner Campbell combined to dislodge other key batsmen.

Holder removed Ahmed Shehzad (0) in the first over when Griffith splendidly clutched a sharp chance at second slip, tumbling to his left.

It became nine for two when Holder sent back Babar Azam (4).

Bolan got rid of captain Azeem Ghumman (9) at 35 for three and 14 runs later Campbell held a return catch to dislodge No.3 batsman Ahsan Ali (28) as Pakistan fell into deep trouble.

Man-of-the-match Azam took the initiative away from the West Indies although when his 90-run fifth-wicket stand with Rameez Aziz (39) was broken, Pakistan were behind the required run-rate.

Wicketkeeper Mohammad Waqas joined Azam and used a 23-ball 29 to quicken the pace.

They added a precious 64 in less than nine overs.

Batting intelligently at No.6, Azam gathered smart runs and steered two-time champions Pakistan to their second win over West Indies in this tournament.

He reached his fifty off 56 balls with five fours and had counted 10 boundaries in a 93-ball knock that left him eight short of a hundred when victory was achieved with nine balls to spare.

Hammad was dropped — in the penultimate over — by Griffith in the deep when West Indies still had a slim chance of victory, and Sarmad Bhatti lofted leg-spinner Dewar to the extra cover boundary for the winning runs.

Holder, whose tremendous haul of five for 19 had propelled West Indies past England in the quarter-final, was again the pick of the bowlers for West Indies, claiming two for 28 off 10 overs.

Cariah (1-25), Bolan (1-30) and Campbell (1-48) were the other wicket-takers as the young Windies, sponsored by the TCL Group, exited the championship race though staging their best ICC U19 World Cup performance since 2004 when they finished runners-up to Pakistan.