Young Tigers clinch thriller

Bangladesh Under-19 cricket team survived a close call against their Afghan rivals in Sylhet as they managed to win the first youth One-Day International of the five-match series by only 16 runs at Sylhet on Friday.

After winning the toss and batting first, the Bangladesh U-19 team were all-out for only 154 runs at Sylhet International Cricket Stadium, where only Pratik Nowrose Nabil and skipper SM Meherob Hossain could survive against the Afghan bowling attack.

Meherob was the top scorer with 49 runs, Nabil scored 42 runs, and Aich Mollah scored 22 runs; these are the only three batsmen who could make it to a double-digit score.

Right-arm medium pacer Bilal Sami took four wickets, left-arm spinner Shahidullah Hasani took three wickets to keep the young tigers on a leash.

Chasing the paltry total, the Afghans looked comfortable when Suliman Safi (48) and Nangeyalia Kharote (26) were batting. But a triple strike from Ripon Mondol at the end wrapped their innings for only 138 runs. Ripon ended up with an impressive bowling figure of 9.2-1-20-4. - TBP