Hosts Bangladesh Under-19 met their ambition of better their record in the U-19 World Cup. The junior Tigers yesterday defeated Nepal by six wickets in the first quarter-final to move to the semi-finals. Bangladesh’s previous best result in the tournament came in 2006 when they finished fifth and moving to the last-four stage meant the junior Tigers are among the top four teams in this edition.
In pursuit of 212, skipper Mehedi Hasan and wicketkeeper-batsman Zakir Hasan put up an unbeaten 117-run stand for the fifth wicket to steer the hosts on the threshold of a memorable title win. Bangladesh will now face the winner of the fourth quarter-final between Pakistan and the West Indies.
The Bangladesh youngsters have succeeded in fetching their best ever result in the tournament till date. However, the win was not achieved without some concerns being raised. Fingers are being pointed towards the junior Tigers for their approach with the bat. Slow starts by the openers and pushing themselves into a tough situation in a game have been ugly features of the home side. Bangladesh so far have been undefeated in the competition having won all three of their group stage matches and the tie against Nepal yesterday. But their back-foot mentality and absence of aggression with the willow might prove to be their undoing as the tournament progresses.
There is no doubt that Nepal have been one of the surprising teams of the tournament, given that they have qualified for the Super League for the first time in history. But given Bangladesh’s ability, the approach of chasing the 212 runs raised a few eyebrows. In the first 25 overs, Bangladesh had only once taken the run rate to four runs per over and thanks to a disastrous run out and a couple of soft dismissals, they were staring down at the abyss.
Nepal had fought tooth and nail till then but the picture started becoming brighter for the home side once Zakir and Mehedi started to milk the singles around. The duo took charge of the show from there and before any further damage, steered the ship to the shore with 10 balls remaining.
Both the batsmen remained unbeaten with match-winning knocks but Mehedi, the player of the match, was the one who emerged as the star of the show. The right-arm all-rounder slammed an unbeaten 55 off 65 balls with the help of three boundaries. Mehedi had earlier picked up a wicket when Nepal batted first. Zakir ended with an undefeated 77-ball 75, featuring five boundaries and an over boundary.
Earlier, Bangladesh made a good start to the day, having restricted the opposition to 211/9 with right-arm seamer Mohammad Saifuddin leading the way with his 2/38.
