Bangladesh successfully defend U19 Men’s Asia Cup title after beating India in final

Bangladesh successfully defended their title in the U19 Men’s Asia Cup after beating India by 59 runs in the final on Sunday at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.

Last year, the Junior Tigers won the championship for the first time after taking down the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and this time around, they took down the eight-time champions. After being asked to bat first, Bangladesh put up a decent score of 198 in 49.1 overs on the board. Rizan Hossain was their standout batter after he made 47 runs off 65 balls with three fours. Mohammad Shihab James and Farid Hasan chipped in with handy knocks of 40 and 39 respectively.

After skipper Azizul Hakim departed cheaply, James and Rizan put on 62 runs for the fourth wicket. For India, Yudhajit Guha, Chetan Sharma and Hardik Raj picked up one wicket apiece. Kiran Chormale, KP Karthikeya and Ayush Mhatre accounted for a scalp each.

India falter in run-chase

India lost both their openers cheaply after Mhatre and Vaibhav Suryavanshi departed early. Andre Siddarth, Karthikeya and skipper Mohamed Amaan got starts with scores of 20, 21 and 26, but failed to carry on. In the 20th over, Iqbal Hossain Emon put India under pressure with the wickets of Nikhil Kumar and Karthikeya.

Emon also dismissed Harvansh Pangalia to finish with figures of 7-1-24-3. Hardik fought hard with a 24-run knock off 21 balls with three fours, but his effort wasn’t enough for India to get close. Skipper Hakim failed with the bat, but delivered with the ball after finishing with excellent figures of 2.2-1-8-3. He also got the wicket of Sharma to pull the curtains down on the match.

India were shot out for 139 in 35.2 overs as they could never get themselves ahead in the run-chase. Rizan Hossain got the all-important wicket of Andre Siddarth.