Home ›› 29 Jan 2022 ›› Sport
Bangladesh Under-19 National Team will seek revenge for their recent U-19 Asia Cup semi-final loss against India U-19 in the quarter-final of the ICC U-19 World Cup in West Indies today as the teams meet again in the event, staging a rematch of the final of the last edition.
Bangladesh won their first-ever global cricketing title when they beat India in the final of the 2020 U-19 World Cup final in South Africa by three wickets. But their record against India at this level is not great, having won only four out of 24 matches.
But in the most recent five matches, Bangladesh have managed two wins, with India winning the other three. The most recent loss for the Young Tigers came in the U-19 Asia Cup in UAE, where India came out victorious by 103 runs.
Before the U-19 World Cup, Bangladesh had played a tri-series with two Indian U-19 teams, India U-19 A and India U-19 B. Bangladesh won the tournament, winning four out of five matches, with the other abandoned.
Bangladesh have not had a smooth ride in their World Cup title defence so far. They won their warm-up match against Zimbabwe comprehensively by 155 runs but stumbled in their first match.
They were bowled out for just 97 against England in the opener, and things could have been a lot worse if Ripon Mondol, batting at no. 10, had not scored an unbeaten 33. England chased that total down within 25.1 overs, with seven wickets in hand.
In the next two matches, the young Tigers bounced back and picked up two expected wins against Canada and UAE. They beat Canada by eight wickets before thrashing UAE by nine.
India, on the other hand, have been in brilliant form. They won the final against Sri Lanka by nine wickets to defend their Asia Cup throne. They also won all three of their group stage matches. They beat South Africa by 45 runs before thrashing Ireland by 174 runs. And in the final match of the group stage, they decimated Uganda as they piled up 405-5 before bowling the Ugandans out for 79 to win by 326 runs.
Bangladesh will rely a lot on pacer Ripon Mondol and opener Mahfijul Islam. Mahfijul has been in pretty good form, with a couple of fifties and a hundred in his last 10 matches. Ripon has been impressive with the ball as he has picked up 12 wickets in his last five matches.
Ahead of the match, Bangladesh skipper Rakibul Hasan said they will try to play a fearless brand of cricket against India.
“We have had a break of about 5-6 days ahead of the quarter-final. We have prepared well. We are in a good space physically and mentally. Also, we are confident after two wins in the last two matches. We have confidence in our skills.
“We will try to apply our plan on the pitch. We will play a fearless and positive brand of cricket against them so that we can come out with a good result,” the Bangladesh skipper said.
Rakibul wants to draw on previous matches against India and does not want to make the same mistakes.
“We have played against them recently. We know their strengths and weaknesses. If we can play according to our plan and not commit mistakes, then we will be able to come out with a good result,” he added.
