||Desk Report||

Bangladesh U19s failed to make it to the final of the Under-19 Asia Cup in their own backyard as they suffered a 2-run defeat against India in the first semi-final of the tournament, at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.

Bangladesh U19s’ batting performance have once again made them suffer, and this time, they have no way to compensate for it as they are already out of the tournament.

Winning the toss, India chose to bat first. Bangladesh choked the flow of runs from the very beginning by removing their opener Devdut Padikkal early. Another opener, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Anuj Rawat restored their innings with 66-run stand. Both the batsmen were out scoring 30-odd runs as the Indian side suffered a collapse to quickly become 77/5 from 69/1 after the first 20 overs.

Another 59-run partnership from Ayush Badoni and Sameer Chaudhary weathered the storm for India. Ayush made 28 runs and Sameer got 36 runs to his name, before returning to the pavilion. Bangladesh came back in the game by breaking that stand and finally bundled out India for 172 runs.

Shoriful Islam topped the wicket-taking charts for Bangladesh by taking three scalps. Rishad Hossain, Mrittunjoy Chowdhury, and Towhid Hridoy also bagged two wickets while Minhazur Rahman got one scalp under his belt.

Coming on to chase the paltry target, Bangladesh too did not have a good start, losing five wickets while scoring the first 65 runs. Shamim Hossain and Akbar Ali then stitched together a fine 74-run stand. Shamim picked up his half-century and made 59 runs before returning to the pavilion and Akbar made 45 runs.

Just when it appeared that these two have steered the team out of danger, their tailenders failed to hold nerves as Bangladesh fell to a narrow defeat.

Mohit Jangra and Siddharth Desai picked up three wickets each to set the stage for India’s win. Harsh Tyagi also scalped two wickets.

The winner of the second semi-final between the Sri Lanka U19s and the Afghanistan U19s will meet the India U19s in the final match on October 7.

 

Scores