Young Tigers tanked by England in opening match

Bangladesh suffered a humbling seven-wicket defeat to England in the opening match of their Under-19 World Cup title defence at St Kitts on Sunday.

Batting first, the young Tigers were bowled out for just 97, and England chased it down with almost half of their overs in hand.

It could have been far worse for Bangladesh as they were 51-9 at one stage, but tailender Ripon Mondon’s 33 off 51 deliveries took them close to three figures.

Bangladesh lost their top-order in no time as they were down to 8-4 within the powerplay. Joshua Boyden sent back their openers, with James Sales sending back Prantik Nowrose Nabil and Md Fahim getting run out.

After a brief 18-run stand between Aich Mollah and Ashiqur Zaman, the latter was sent back by Thomas Aspinwall and Singh came back to dismiss the former.

Abdullah Al Mamun and SM Meherob were also gone, and after Boyden made Bangladesh skipper Rakibul Hasan his fourth scalp, Bangladesh were down to 51-9.

But Ripon managed to counter-punch a bit as he hit five fours and one six in his knock of 33 and took Bangladesh to 97.

Besides Boyden’s four-wicket haul, Aspinwall picked up a couple for the English. Sales, Singh, and Tom Prest picked up one each.

England got off to a slightly nervy start with the bat as Bethell survived a run-out scare when Meherob could not gather the ball at the stumps with only five on the board.

He survived a close lbw appeal off Ashiqur shortly after before opening partner Thomas began to up the ante after a cautious start.

But having hit three fours, Thomas perished for 15 when he miscued another attacking shot off Ripon to leave England 20 for one in the ninth over.

That breakthrough gave Bangladesh a small glimmer of hope but when the English captain Prest nicked one behind off his counterpart Rakibul for just four soon after, the game was very much on.

However, Rew joined Bethell and together they batted superbly, counteracting the Bangladesh spin attack to alleviate any potential English nerves.

Bethell eventually paid for some hesitant running - which had been a feature of his innings - but by the time he was run out by Ariful for a well-made 44 from 63 balls, the game was all but over.

Luxton strode out to the crease and promptly hit his first ball down the ground for six before Rew, 26 not out off 39 balls, hit the winning runs off the first ball of the 26th over.