Junior Tigers craving for elusive U19 Asia Cup title
Image: BCB,Roton Gomez
|| CF Correspondent ||
Bangladesh Under-19 team is determined to come all guns blazing as they take on take on mighty India in the final of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Under-19 Asia Cup at R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Sunday to secure the title that eluded them quite several times.
It will be a tougher job by any means as Bangladesh has been in perpetual losing streak against India.
Bangladesh lost to India in the last edition of the tournament’s semifinal and more recently in England in the Tri-nation tournament final.
They have failed to beat them in any knockout games of the big tournament in youth cups.
Bangladesh captain Akbar Ali said that they are eyeing to break the losing streak against India as they prepare well to take on the Asian giants in the final of the Youth Asia Cup.
“We are mentally in a right frame of mind ahead of the clash. We are hopeful of playing well. We played well in the group stage and we will play the final with relaxed mind,” Akbar Ali said.
Bangladesh won three matches in a row in the group stage to make it to the semifinal against Afghanistan which was washed out without a ball being balled. By virtue of being the group champions of their Group B, Bangladesh moved to the final.
India’s semifinal game against Sri Lanka was also washed out due to rain and according to the rules of the tournament, they also moved to the final by being the champions of Group A.
Akbar Ali said the team just need to regroup well on the particular day to beat India.
He is also confident of his pace bowler and back his batsmen to score big runs. The weather in Colombo does not look good as some rainfall is predicated which may hamper the match.
India have an impressive record in Under 19 Asia Cups with multiple titles to their credit and they will be looking for a seventh title.
Ever since the Under-19 Asia Cup was launched in 1989, India has reached all but one final and so good their record is that they have never lost a final. (The final in 2012 was a tie with India and Pakistan being declared joint-champions).
Sourav Ganguly, Marvan Atapattu, Dinesh Karthik, Angelo Mathews and Babar Azam are some of the stars who have excelled in previous Under-19 Asia Cup finals and it remains to be seen which young star emerges out of the 2019 final.
Bangladesh will rely heavily on opener Mahmudul Joy, who is expected to play the anchor role batting through the innings. Not that he is unable to cash in when quick runs are needed. In the final group game against Sri Lanka, he played leg-spin of Kavindu Nadeeshan watchfully before stepping up the gas in the bowler’s last over. He smashed two sixes and three fours in what was the 47th over of Bangladesh’s innings and that onslaught shook up the Sri Lankans.
Skipper Akbar Ali is the more attractive batsman though. Not too sure whether he bats at the right position as number six looks too low for him
India themselves have some excellent fast bowling talents and a mouthwatering contest awaits in the Sri Lankan capital.
