FAT­UL­LAH–Cap­tain Shim­ron Het­my­er's char­ac­ter has come in for high praise from team man­age­ment fol­low­ing his half-cen­tu­ry in a win­ning cause against Pak­istan Un­der-19s in Mon­day's quar­ter­fi­nal of the Un­der-19 Crick­et World Cup.

The Guyanese bats­man, strug­gling with poor form, had come un­der tremen­dous pres­sure fol­low­ing the run out con­tro­ver­sy against Zim­bab­we in the last group match but hit an ag­gres­sive 52 to help pro­pel Young West In­dies to a con­vinc­ing five-wick­et vic­to­ry over the Pak­ista­nis.

"Het­my­er has been one of the lead­ing play­ers at the youth lev­el for the last few years so he's a play­er we felt would al­ways come good and he came good when it re­al­ly mat­tered," team man­ag­er Dwain Gill said.

"He came in un­der a lot of pres­sure, as cap­tain he came in for a lot of crit­i­cism but on the day we were con­fi­dent he would de­liv­er and now we ex­pect him to go from strength to strength."

Het­my­er en­tered the World Cup as the Caribbean side's lead­ing bats­man but pri­or to Mon­day, had man­aged on­ly 23 runs from four in­nings.How­ev­er, he picked him­self up, strik­ing eight fours and a six in a breezy 42-ball in­nings to help lay the foun­da­tion for the Young Windies vic­to­ry.

Gill said Het­my­er, hav­ing got­ten a start, should have car­ried on to get a big­ger score but hopes the in­nings can be the start of a run of form.

"This is just one in­nings and we are dis­ap­point­ed he couldn't have fin­ished the match," Gill not­ed.

"He should have been there at the end but hav­ing said he re­al­ly took the at­tack to the bowlers. We're glad he's come to the par­ty and we're look­ing for more lead­er­ship for him."

West In­dies face Bangladesh in the sec­ond se­mi-fi­nal to­mor­row.

CMC