U19 Asia Cup 2021: Semi-finals Round Up

In what has been an eventful day, India Under 19 and Sri Lanka Under 19 have booked their seats for the summit clash of the Asian Cricket Council Under-19s Asia Cup 2021-22. The teams will lock horns for the finals of the multination tournament on Friday, December 31^st at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.

India emerged triumphantly against Bangladesh by a massive margin of 103 runs. Whereas on the other hand, Sri Lanka dominated the proceedings against Pakistan who had a splendid run in the tournament having won all their three matches in the group stage.

India outplay Bangladesh to reach the finals

After having won the toss, Bangladesh elected to field first at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. However, this decision quite did not go their way. The team was successful in getting early breakthroughs as Bangladesh sent back both India’s openers Angkrish Raghuvanshi (16) and Harnoor Singh (15) early on as the team was reduced to 49-2.

However, Shaik Rasheed then stood out for the team. He played an unbeaten belligerent inning of 90 runs for India even though wickets kept falling from the other end. Owing to this the team could post the target of 244 for the opposition. For Bangladesh, Rakibul Hasan starred with the ball scalping three wickets, and also maintained a good economy rate.

India’s bowlers then chimed in with a clinical display with the ball to restrict the opposition early on. Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Ravi Kumar, Raj Bawa, and Vicky Ostwal struck with two wickets each as Bangladesh was wrapped up at 140 in the 39^th over.

Sri Lanka exudes great character to secure a win over Pakistan

Sri Lanka Under-19 elected to bat first at the ICC Academy, Dubai. However, their batting unit experienced a collapse as the team could manage to put just 147 runs on board. Yasiru Rodrigo (31*) and Matheesha Pathirana (31) were the only ones who provided some resilience to the team.

Zeeshan Zameer was clinical with the ball for the Men in Green, picking up four wickets. However whilst chasing the total, Pakistan also witnessed a batting collapse as they were bundled up at 125 as Sri Lanka won the game by 22 runs.

Brief scores:

India Under 19 and Bangladesh Under 19

India- (Shaik Rasheed 90*, Vicky Ostwal 28, Ravi Kumar 2-22, Raj Bawa 2-26)

Bangladesh- ( Ariful Islam 42, Rakibul Hasan 3-41)

Sri Lanka Under 19 and Pakistan Under 19

Sri Lanka – ( Yasiru Rodrigo 31*, Matheesha Pathirana 31, Treveen Mathew 4-14, Dunith Wellalage 3-31)

Pakistan- ( Zeeshan Zameer 4-32, Muhammad Shehzad 30, Ahmed Khan 36)