Afghanistan once again shrugged Bangladesh off in a major tournament as the emerging nation pushed the young Tigers away from reaching the Cup phase in the Under-19 World Cup. Bangladesh lost to Australia by 74 runs while the Afghans recorded a win against their opponents Namibia by four wickets at different grounds in Abu Dhabi yesterday.
Bangladesh, who began their final Group B game at top, slipped to third handing the spot to Australia while Afghanistan moved to second place with a better net run-rate. Bangladesh had earlier defeated Afghanistan and Namibia, but one defeat yesterday shattered their dreams of reaching the Cup phase, and now they will compete in the Plates. The win took Afghanistan to four points, and the fact that they reached their 193-run target in just 25.3 overs moved their net run-rate above that of Bangladesh.
The final equation was something that the young Tigers had experienced a month back as well in the U-19 Asia Cup. Bangladesh had beaten Afghanistan and Malaysia before they lost to Sri Lanka in their final group match which resulted in their elimination to the Afghans via run-rate.
Opting to bat first, the Australians found it difficult to score runs off the Bangladeshi spinners and were 123-4 in 36 overs before Jake Doran played an unbeaten innings of 99 to carry them to a challenging 244-6.
However, even after losing Joyraz Sheikh (one) in the third over Bangladesh looked composed with the 70-run second wicket partnership between in-form batsman Shadman Islam and Liton Das. After Liton departed on 47, Shadman paired with Mosaddek Hossain to add 48 runs.
However, both batsmen were dismissed in the space of two runs leaving the youths in a shaky position of 130-4. Shadman, who scored a hundred and a fifty in the previous two matches, was unlucky to get run-out on 49 while Mosaddek made 29.
Their dismissals triggered a major collapse as Bangladesh lost their remaining wickets for 40 runs only. They were all out for 170.
Group B
Teams Mat Won Lost Tied N/R Pts Net RR
Australia 3 2 1 0 0 4 +0.927
Afghanistan 3 2 1 0 0 4 +0.881
Bangladesh 3 2 1 0 0 4 +0.097
Namibia 3 0 3 0 0 0 -1.920
