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Dhaka, Feb. 23: Favourites Pakistan A stormed into the final of the four-nation 3rd SAARC cricket tournament beating holders In- dia A by a massive 68 runs here on Sunday.

Speedster Mohammad Zahid crushed the Indian middle-order grabbing three wickets in his explosive 5th and 6th overs that enabled Pakistan to restr ict India A at 164 runs for 9 wickets. The win brought double delight for the strong Pakistan A as it was the maiden victory by any Pakistan side again st India at the Dhaka National Stadium.

Despite poor performance by their top order batsmen, middle order Basit A li scored a confident 67 off 81 balls and Mohammad Hus- sain made a hurricane 51 runs in 36 balls. This allowed Pakistan A to take the score to 232 runs f or nine in 50 overs.

For India A right-arm medium-fast bowler Harvinder Singh made a memorable debut with a haul of six wickets for 43 runs that in- cluded the wickets of Basit Ali and Mohammad Hussain. Singh's fine efforts went down the drain due to the failure of Indian batsmen, but the 20-year-old got some solace as he earned the Man-of-the-Match award for his extraordinary bowling performan ce.

The day's loss left defending champions India A in doubt about their chan ces for the other final berth having one point from two matters.

Sri Lanka A are in better position with three points from two matches. Th ey will face Pakistan A in their last round robin league match on Tuesday af ter a rest day on Monday.

Put to bat first, openers Akhtar Sarfaraz (20) and Mujahid Jamshed (23) means a good start for Pakistan A contributing 57 runs in the opening partnership before both fell to Harvinder Singh.

Jamshed was first to go as he edged a catch to Hemang Badani at slip in t he 13th over. Sarfaraz also embraced a similar fate in the next over with th e addition of three runs. Five overs later, Mohammad Waseem (8) was trapped lbw by Singh. Skipper Mujtaba (9) was sent back by off-break bowler Noel David in the 27th over as Pakistan A were struggling at 93 for four wicke ts.

Indian skipper Ajay Sharma, who bowled eight overs, saw his only saltless in wicketkeeper Waseem Yousafi (15) who was caught by David that brought Mohammad Hussain into action.

Basit Ali completed his 50 in 64 balls and hit boundaries before giving a high catch at mid-wicket to Amaya Khurasia off Karrinder Singh with total on 195 in the 47th over.

Hussain, who completed the fastest half century of the meet in 36 balls, was out on the last ball of the penultimate over going for his third big hit. He was caught by David off Singh. Hussain hit two sixes, both off Sharma, in the 43rd and 49th overs, and also three fours.

Tailender Kabeer Khan remained not out on 11 runs. New ball bowler Devash ish Mohanty, Ajoy Sharma and Noel David claimed one wicket each for India A.

In reply, India A suffered a middle-order collapse and were never able to recover fully although non-striking opener S. Prasad and last recognised bat S. Bahautule raised a glamour of hope adding 59 runs for the sixth wicket. But the hopes faded once Bahutule was run out trying for a quick single i n the 30th over with In- dia on 115. Bahutule had joined Prasad in the 13th o ver when In- dia were reeling at 44 for five wickets. After Rahutule's dismis- sa l, India again fell in deep trouble losing N. David (O), A. Sarkar (3) and D. Mohanty (2) with the addition of only 13 runs in next seven overs.

Non-stroking opener Prasad played a defiant innings all through the 50 ru ns playing 159 balls that included six fours. Prasad along with Harvinder Si ngh (not out 4 off 31 balls) struggled for the final 13 overs in their unconquered last wicket stand. Thus reducing the margin of defeat for Ind ia. They added 32 runs.

Zahid the wrecker of the Indian middle-order, got rid of danger- ous lookin g Khurasiya (15) in the last ball of his 5th over. He completed the hat-tri ck in the next over by dismissing and S. Sarath (0) on successive balls.

Aqib Javed gave Pakistan an early breakthrough as when he clean bowled Waseem Jaffer in the 3rd over with India on 5 runs.

Zahid finished with 7-2-38-3 while Aqib Javed, Kabeer Khan, Mo- hammed Huss ain and Asif Mujtaba took one wicket each.

Result: Pakistan won by 68 runs.

Man-of-the-Match: Harvinder Singh (India).