The Bangladesh U-23 had their ACC Emerging Teams Cup 2018 campaign come to an end as Sri Lanka U-23 defeated them by four wickets in a close encounter at the R Premadasa stadium in Colombo on Thursday.
Batting first, Bangladesh posted 237 losing all their wickets in 49.1 overs. Opener Mizanur Rahman top scored with 72 but didn’t receive much support from the other end as Zakir Hasan (1), Nazmul Hossain Shanto (10), and captain Nurul Hasan (8) all departed cheaply.
From there, Mizanur and Mosaddek Hossain formed a 65-run partnership to take the total past 100 before in-form Mosaddek was dismissed for 39. Another partnership happened between Mizanur and Yasir Ali before Mizanur was gone with the score at 158/5 in the 38th over.
Yasir then played an important innings to bat with the tail and take the score past 200 as he scored 66 from 72 deliveries. For Sri Lanka, fast bowler Chamika Karunaratne was the chief wicket-taker with 4-31.
In reply, Sri Lanka were in a precarious position at 87/4 in the 20th over, with Shafiul Islam, Nayeem Hasan, Afif Hossain, and Shoriful Islam taking one wicket each. But from there, Sri Lanka steadied their innings and formed two decent 50-plus partnerships to take their team close to victory.
Kamindu Mendis was part of both partnerships and he was the top scorer with 91 not out from just 88 deliveries and he helped his team reach the target of 238 with 10 deliveries to spare.
In the other semi final at the Colombo Cricket Club ground, India U-23 emerged victorious over Pakistan U-23 with a dominant seven wicket win with 135 deliveries remaining, Batting first Pakistan scored just 172 to which India replied with their batsmen Himmat Singh and Nitish Rana both scoring 59 and 60 respectively to guider their side home.
The final between Sri Lanka and India will be held on Saturday in Colombo.
1st Semi Final
India U-23 178/3 in 27.3 overs (Himmat Singh 59*, Rana 60*) beat Pakistan U-23 172 all out in 44.4 overs (Mohammad Rizwan 67, Markande 38/4) by 7 wickets.
2nd Semi Final
Sri Lanka U-23 241/6 in 48.2 overs (Kamindu Mendis 91*, Shoriful Islam 50/2) beat Bangladesh U-23 237 all out in 49.1 Overs (Mizanur Rahman 72, Yasir Ali 66) by 4 wickets.
