Sports Desk: India became the champion seven times out of 10 editions of the U-19 Asia Cup. Afghanistan won the title once. This time, Bangladesh won the title.
In the third edition of the tournament in 2012, India and Pakistan were declared joint champions as the final match was tied. India was the hot favorite in this year’s event as well. After defeating them in the semi-final, Bangladesh reached the final for the second time.
Bangladesh is the new champion after defeating the United Arab Emirates by a huge margin of 195 runs in the final of the 10th edition of the Under-19 Asia Cup on Sunday.
The UAE is the host nation of the Youth Asia Cup for the second time in a row and the third time in total. Like last time, the U-19 Asia Cup was held in Arima. The hosts crushed tournament favorites Pakistan to reach the final for the first time, losing the title to Bangladesh.
The UAE won the toss and sent Bangladesh to bat first at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday. Batting first, Bangladesh made a challenging score of 282 runs for 8 wickets based on Ashikur Rahman Shibli’s century and Rizwan Hossain and Ariful’s pair of fifties.
Ashiqur Rahman Shibli scored 129 runs off 149 balls with 12 fours and a six for the team. This is his second century in the tournament. Before this, he played a fighting inning of 116 runs from 130 balls against Sri Lanka on Wednesday and took the team to the semi-finals. Shibli scored a century in the final today. Besides, Rizwan and Ariful scored 60 runs in 71 balls and 50 runs in 40 balls.
Chasing a target of 283 runs from 300 balls, the United Arab Emirates fell into a batting disaster at the beginning of the innings for the first title of the Youth Asia Cup. The tournament hosts were bowled out for 87 runs in 24.5 overs after losing wickets in the interval since the start of the innings.
Maruf Mridha and Rohanat Daulat Barshan took three wickets each for the Bangladesh team. Iqbal Hossain Imon and Sheikh Parvez Hossain Jiban took 2 wickets each.
