Bangladesh endured a crushing defeat of 7 wickets in their first game of the U19 cricket world cup.
The defending champions started their defence of the title against England at Warner Park, St. Kitts.
Having won the toss, Bangladesh captain Rakibul Hassan decided to bat first. The whole team looked content with the outcome.
But that didn’t age well for the junior Tigers. English bowlers Bowden and Sales bowled quite tightly and accurately taking all the advantages the condition and pitch provided.
Bangladeshi batters were careless with their batting. They were 8-4 within 10 overs. The score became 50-6 within 20 overs. Only Aich Molla could reach double figures (13 off 35).
Bangladesh then lost 3 wickets within 1 run. Form 50-6, the scoreboard came down to 51-9. Still, Bangladesh could reach 97 thanks to some tail-end heroics of Ripon and Noyon. Ripon ended up being the highest scorer for Bangladesh with 33(41).
Every English bowler bowled brilliantly. Joshua Boyden was the pick of them with figures of 9-4-16-4.
In reply, the English batsmen also struggled in the beginning. Bangladesh pressed them hard and gave them tough times, took 2 wickets within 15 overs as England could gather only 26 runs.
However, the lack of continuous disciplined pressure later made it easy for the English batters.
A 65 run partnership between Jacob Bethell and James Rew sealed the deal For England. Bethell was the highest scorer of England with 44(63).
Skipper Rakibul Hassan and star of the batting Ripon Mondol took 1 wicket each for Bangladesh.
Bangladesh now need to bounce back in the next games to survive in the tournament. This defeat not only denounced them for points but also awarded them with a huge run rate deficit.
