ACC U19 Asia Championship Semifinal 2 Review: Bowlers power Sri Lanka into final

In spite of the intervention of the rain, Sri Lanka rode on the back of Praveen Jayawickrama who picked up four wickets to help the Lankans secure a passageway into the final of the ACC U19 Asia Championships. The fact of the matter also sees the Lankans moving into the final of this particular tournament for the first time ever, something they have not done in the past.

A few rain clouds prevailed in the first innings which saw the Lankans bowl first after Bangladesh skipper Saif Hassan won the toss and opted to bat first. The decision was to go south a few minutes after realizing the kind of swing and seam movement the Lankan pacers would be on the receiving end of.

It was a decent start by the openers who began the innings by impressing with the bat initially. Their solidity was also a feature of the same as they were solid in defense to say the least. This also eventually went on to bat most of the first powerplay by playing some impressive shots while they did.

Skipper Saif Hassan was the first wicket to fall thus becoming the only scalp of Jehan Daniel in the encounter. Moreover, the fact of the matter remained that the bowling change had well and truly worked. Sozbi Hozen, Hassan’s opening partner was the next to fall in a few short minutes. This quite effectively turned the tables on the impressive start and also ensured that the Bangladeshis would not cross the 200-run mark.

Afif Hossain, Rafsan Rahman, and perhaps even Mohammad Rakib netted a few impressive scores of 38, 36, and 22 respectively. While the batting performance was a shambles, it was clear that these contributions, however, less they were ensured that the Bangladeshis ensured that they reached 194, a rather competitive score to say the least.

Reven Kelly and Vishva Chaturanga made their way out to bat in the following innings with the rain clouds hovering over the skies in a flash, it seemed quite clear that this was a chase that would certainly depend on the rain meaning that the Duckworth-Lewis Method would eventually make its way into the grand scheme of things. This ensured that the Lankan batsmen went about their work with extreme caution.

Chaturanga was the one who impressed with some solid and flashy batsmanship as he smashed his way to an impressive 68 as the Lankans seemed to be coasting towards an impressive win. However, the rains opened up shortly after the wicketkeeper batsman’s dismissal after he had amassed 68 and eventually the match was awarded to the Lankans courtesy of a 26-run win.

Brief Scores:

Bangladesh: 194 all out in 48.3 overs (Rafsan Rahman 38; P Jayawickrama 4/25)

Sri Lanka: 106/2 (V Chaturanga 68; Nayeem Hasan 2/12)