U-19 Asia Cup
Ashiqur guides Bangladesh to end group stage as champions
|| CF DESK ||
Bangladesh under-19 entered the Asia Cup semi-final as the group champions beating Sri Lanka by six wickets in the last group stage match at ICC Academy, Dubai.
With the win Bangladesh set up a semi-final clash with neighbors India.
Opener Ashiqur Rahman Shibly (116) registered a hundred to help Bangladesh chase down the target in 40.5 overs.
Bangladesh made a shaky start losing the opener Jishan Alam when he nicked Garuka Sanketh in the very first over. Ashiqur then added a 74-run partnership with Md Rizwan to rebuild their innings from the early blow until Rizwan departed on 32 runs with a return catch to Lahiru.
Ashiqur continued his fine form and took the team forward single-handedly aided by brief partnerships with Ariful Islam and Ahrar Amin.
Ariful played a short innings of 18 runs and Amin contributed with 23 runs.
Earlier, Bangladesh elected to bowl first and restricted Sri Lanka to 199-9 in 50 overs. Wasi Siddiquee was the pick of the bowling attack as he returned three wickets conceding 32 runs in his ten overs.
Apart from Wasi, Maruf Mridha and Mahfuzur Rahman picked up two wickets each for Bangladesh.
Despite a good start by Sri Lanka, Bangladesh were able to take the game on their side when Wasi took two quick wickets in the same over to reduce Sri Lanka to 118-5.
Wasi got his third wicket after a couple of overs to rattle down Sri Lanka’s batting order and eventually Bangladesh continued taking wickets at regular intervals.
Opener Pulindu Perera scored the highest 28 runs, skipper Sineth Jayawardena (c) and Vishwa Lahiru scored 25 runs to set a 200-run target.