U19 World Cup 2018: Day 3- Round up

The U19 World Cup 2018 in New Zealand kicked off amidst much anticipation and has received a massive response from cricket lovers from all across the world. The tournament, in the first couple of days, has witnessed some enthralling fixtures. While there have been some nail-biting matches, there were some upsets as well. Day 3 of the tournament featured two matches- Bangladesh U19 vs Canada U19 and England U19 vs Namibia U19.

Coming on the back of a comprehensive victory in the opener against Namibia, Bangladesh looked the favourites in their second encounter against Canada. The Tigers put up an all-round show and there were no surprises as they clinched a comfortable 66 runs victory. 18-year old Afif Hossain, who came through the ranks in Bangladesh Premier League starred in the victory. The youngster struck a crucial half-century when his team was flagging and then picked up a five-wicket haul to seal the game.

Afif’s off-spin was the major reason behind such a collapse. He began his first spell by dismissing Canadian opener Randhir Sandhu gone. His second spell followed a similar script. Coming back to bowl a third, he took out their top-scorer Arslan and finished his spell with a double-wicket over. Considering Afif had also lifted Bangladesh from 91 for 3 to 202 for 4, he was an easy choice for Man of the Match.

In the other fixture for the day, England kickstarted their World Cup campaign with a comfortable 8-wicket victory over Namibia. It ended up being a rather one-sided affair as the fifties from skipper Harry Brook and Will Jacks were enough to guide the Lions past their required target with more than 25 overs in their innings remaining.

Namibia started confidently after opting to bat first but once Tom Scriven broke an opening stand of 42, wickets began to fall at regular intervals. Leg-spinner Luke Hollman took 3-41 while Scriven (2-30) and Brook (2-32) each claimed two wickets and Namibia limped to 196-9 from their 50 overs.

The England reply started brightly and they had moved to 55 when Tom Banton (21) was bowled by Gerhard Lottering, who removed Savin Perera (26) in his next over.

However, the victory was not enough to put England top of Group C after Bangladesh recorded their second win in as many games, beating Canada earlier in the day.

Brief Scores

Bangladesh v Canada

Bangladesh 264/8 in 50 overs; Towhid Hridoy 122, Afif Hossain 50; Faisal Jamkhandi 5/48, Rishiv Ragav Joshi 1/48

Canada 198/all out in 49.3 overs; Arslan Khan 63, Pranav Sharma 34; Afif Hossain 5/43, Hasan Mahmud 2/23

Bangladesh beat Canada by 66 runs

Man of the Match: Afif Hossain

England v Namibia

Namibia 196/9 in 50 overs; Shaun Fouche 44, Loftie-Eaton 36; Luke Hollman 3/41, Tom Scriven 2/30

England 198/2 in 24.1 overs; Will Jacks 73, Harry Brook  59; Gerhard Lottering 2/33, Petrus Burger 0/27

England beat Namibia by 8 wickets

Man of the Match: Will Jacks

To get more latest updates, stories of Under19 Word Cup, and other cricketing news around the world, follow up CricTracker.com