Bangladesh Youth Cricket team narrowly missed their maiden Asia Cup U-19 Cricket title losing to India by five runs in the nail-biting final at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Saturday.
This is the 7th title for India in the Under-19 Asia Cup Cricket.
Bangladesh Under-19 team, which never reached the final of the continental youth cricket tournament, came close to their first-ever title on, but finally failed to chase down a small target of 107 runs in 50 overs as they were bundled out for 101 runs in 33 overs, despite two good partnerships in the 7th and 9th wicket stands.
After the departure of six top batsmen for 51 runs in 14.2 overs, captain Akbar Ali pairing with Mrittunjoy Chowdhury kept the Bangladesh hope alive contributing 27 runs in the 7th wicket stand.
Later, Tanzim Hasan Sakib and Rakibul Hasan kept the Bangladesh hope alive again adding 23 runs in the 9th wicket partnership, but finally failed to escape defeat as Sakib fell victim of lbw by day’s best bowler Ankolekar, leaving team just five runs away from the victory.
Eventually, Bangladesh were bundled for the same 101 runs to lose the game by five runs.
Number six batsman Akbar Ali scored team’s highest 23 runs off 36 balls hitting two boundaries, number eight Mrittunjoy Chowdhury posted 21 runs off 26 deliveries featuring two fours and one six.
Sakib made a patient 35-ball 12 runs while tailender Rakibul Hasan scored 34-ball 11 runs.
Orthodox bowler Atharva Ankolekar took five wickets for 28 runs, Akash Singh bagged three wickets for 12 runs. Later, Atharva Ankolekar was adjudged man of the match for his five-wicket haul.
Earlier, Bangladesh wrapped up India for 106 all-out in 32.4 overs.
India won the toss and opted to bat first, but they failed to manage a good start losing three wickets only in eight runs.
Sakib removed Arjun Azad as the first wicket. Mrittunjoy Chowdhury scalped the wicket of Tilak Varma within three runs. Both of the first two wickets were removed by Akbar Ali’s catch.
Suved Parkar was the third Indian wicket to fall down. He was trapped run-out by Shamim Hossain.
However, in the third wicket stand, India amassed 45 runs relying on the captain Dhruv Jurel and Shashwat Rawat. While Dhruv added 30 runs, Rawat scored 19.
During the 10th over, the rain stopped the game for a while. But that was not enough to rescue India from falling down more.
After Dhruv and Rawat, Karan Lal was the only batsman to reach a double-digit score. He hit 37-- highest by any batsman in Indian innings. Eventually, India tumbled for 106 in 32.4 overs.
For Bangladesh, Shamim Hossain bagged three wickets conceding eight runs in six overs while Mrittunjoy Chowdhury also took three wickets conceding 18 runs in 7.4 overs.
This is Bangladesh’s first appearance in the Asia Cup Under-19 final. India, on the other hand, won this event six times earlier.
Before coming to the final, Bangladesh beat the United Arab Emirates, Nepal and the hosts Sri Lanka in their group stage games.
Bangladesh passed the semifinal hurdle without playing any ball against Afghanistan as the match was washed out due to rain. Bangladesh got the ticket of the final for their better results in the group stage.
