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Under-19 Play off final
Lions tamed in their own den
By M. Shamil Amit
Are these the signs of things to come? Bangladesh Under 19 team did it again and this time in style defeating the Sri Lanka Under 19 team by 98 runs in their 5th place play off encounter of the ICC Under 19 Cricket World Cup played at the SSC grounds.What a pathetic display did the team that participated (supposed to be filled with future stars of the national team) at the ongoing ICC Under 19 Cricket World Cup put up in the whole tournament.

The Sri Lankan team made the mistake of sending the opposition to bat and the tigers made merry as they had things their own way. The Lankan fielding was sloppy with easy catches being grassed on a frequent basis.

Half centuries from Saqibul Hasan and Mehrab Hossain with Hasan cracking a 63 ball 67 with eight boundaries and Hossain making an unbeaten 66 in 80 balls inclusive of five boundaries and a six showed the maturity in them which helped Bangladesh to make an imposing 278 for 8 in their 50 overs
The knocks were coupled by two useful partnerships. The first was for the fourth wicket of 85 runs between Hasan and Shamsur Rahman and the other was for the seventh wicket of 80 runs between Hossain and Suhrawardi Shuvo who also contributed 42 in just 40 balls which had three boundaries and a six.
The tigers having put themselves in a strong position by giving the Lankans a daunting task took things cool. Though Sri Lanka was going at over five runs an over they never panicked but fought back to take wickets at regular intervals and by the 30th over they had half accomplished their target by having them struggling on 124 for 6.

The writing was their on the wall for the local boys apart from brief partnerships from the late order batting it was not going to be a threat at all for the tigers and their spinners Suhrawardi Shuvo, Rezaul Islam and Mehrab Hossain combined well to ultimately bundle out the Lankans for 180 in the 45th over.

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