India dash Bangladesh’s dreams of retaining title

India U-19 knocked the defending champions out and booked a Super League semi-final clash against Australia as they beat Bangladesh U-19 by five wickets in the quarter-final of the tournament in Antigua.

Chasing a decent total of 112, India lost Harnoon Singh for a duck in the second over. However, Angkrish Raghuvanshi and Shaik Rasheed guided the well with a 50-run stand in the second wicket.

Ripon Mondol later dismissed both Raghuvanshi and Rasheed in two consecutive deliveries. Ripon then claimed two more and ended with 4-31 in 9 overs. 

Finally, India reached the target in 30.5 overs with five wickets in hand.

Bangladesh earlier showed a poor display of batting as no batter can able to make their innings big and bundled out for a meagre 111 in 37.1 overs.

India U19 pacer Ravi Kumar made a tremendous start for his team by dismissing Bangladesh opener Mahfijul Islam on 2, Iftakher Hossain Ifti on 1 and Prantik Nabil on 7.  

At one stage, young Tigers were at 56-7, thanks to SM Meherob Hasan’s hard-fought 30 alongside Aich Mollah’s 17 and Ashiqur Zaman’s 16 which guided them to cross the margin of 100. Later, they ended the innings with 111 by losing all the wickets in 37.1 overs.

For India, Vicky Ostwal picked up 2 for 25 while Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Kaushal Tambe and Angkrish Raghuvanshi claimed one for each.

Bangladesh were the defending champions after winning the ICC U-19 World Cup 2020 in South Africa by beating India in the final.

ARR