Some excellent display of batting and bowling in tough conditions ensured Bangladesh two wins out of two matches to start their campaign in the ICC U-19 World Cup.
Canada was well in the game having restricted Bangladesh to 264 at the halfway mark, but their chances faded away as they failed to meet the creeping required run-rate.
Canada struck early reducing Bangladesh for 29 for two after winning the toss. Bangladesh captain Saif Hassan fresh from a 48-ball 84 against Namibia, departed after taking 12 runs from an over.
However, Bangladesh had Towhid Hridoy to thank for posting their total, after enduring a testing period at the start of the game.
The initial recovery came from opener Mohammed Naim Sheikh and Towhid Hridoy who added 62 before getting out to off-spinner Rommel Shahzad, who didn’t concede a boundary in his first five overs. Hridoy was then joined by left-handed Afif Hossain as the boundaries started coming freely.
Hridoy’s reached the three-figure mark with the help of only six boundaries, but some hard running kept his strike-rate going, and after reaching the landmark he took off, smashing a further three fours and a six before being caught on the last ball of the innings. Faisal Jharkhand bagged a fifer as he restricted Bangladesh to 264 at the midway mark.
In reply, Canada lost wickets at regular intervals as the batsmen failed to convert the starts. Skipper Arslan Khan although registered a fifty before departing but cannot match the scoring rate as Bangladesh bowlers applied the squeeze to crush their hopes. The key period came between overs 6 and 21 when not a single boundary was scored. While Canada was thinking, they are setting the platform to chase down the target, but they got their balance wrong.
Afif Hossain also shone with the ball as he picked a fifer to help Bangladesh register their second win in the tournament. Afif Hossain bowled with accuracy which allowed him to become the youngest bowler to take a T20 five-for as he added a U19 CWC five-wicket haul to his trophy cabinet.
Bangladesh is looking pretty good to qualify for the quarterfinals of the ICC 2018 U-19 World Cup with two wins from two matches.
Brief Score: Bangladesh 265 (Hridoy 122, Afif 50; Jamkhandi 5/48) beat Canada 198 (Khan 63; Afif 5/43) by 66 runs