Was always waiting to meet India in World Cup final, says Bangladesh U19 pacer Shoriful Islam

Bangladesh pacer Shoriful Islam was a sensation in the final of the U19 World Cup in India played in Potchefstroom recently. The left-hand seamer, who took 2 for 31 in 10 overs in the title clash to help his country lift its maiden world crown in any form, said after the game that the Bangladesh U19 team was eagerly waiting to meet its Indian counterpart in the final. India and Bangladesh have turned out to be fierce competitors in the recent past with the former having the last laugh on almost all occasions.

Like the national sides, the colts of the two neighbours have also had some close encounters in the recent past with India prevailing over their opponents. While India won by just two runs in the semi-final of the U19 Asia Cup in 2018, they won by five runs in the final of the tournament’s edition the next year.

The Bangladesh side finally managed to beat their heavyweight opponents on the big stage. The Tigers were playing just their maiden U19 World Cup final while India were appearing in their seventh. Yet, they played with iron determination to trigger an incredible collapse in the Indian batting order and then overcame the challenges posed by Ravi Bishnoi’s poisonous spin bowling. Bangladesh eventually won by three wickets after their target was revised to 170 in 46 overs after they bowled India out for 177.

Speaking to Bangladeshi daily ‘The Daily Star’ exclusively, Shoriful said: “Actually, we lost two close matches against them in the past. One was the Asia Cup semi-final (in 2018) and the other was a (Asia Cup) final (in 2019).

“I can’t describe what those defeats felt like. Before taking the field for the final, all I could think about was what they did after winning and how we felt after losing. So, we didn’t want things to turn out as they did before. We wanted to do our best and fight with all our strength till the last ball,” he added.

Shoriful Islam put up a brave show against India

Shoriful bowled his heart out in the final two matches of the showpiece event, taking 3/45 in the semi-final against New Zealand before coming up with the brave show against India. He came up with aggression, particularly after taking the wicket of India’s star batter this series Yashasvi Jaiswal.

Talking about his aggression, the 18-year-old said: “We have seen in cricket that to play aggressive cricket, you have to do that and to make the batsmen angry or to induce something in him so that he wants to take me on and so that a wicket falls. When you start aggressively, the batsmen watching from the outside become very tentative.”

The teenager also said that team drew a lot of inspiration from Bangladesh’s senior side which made its World Cup debut in England in 1999 and stunned India in the 2007 edition in the West Indies.

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