Defending champions Bangladesh miserably made their early exit from the ICC Under -19 World Cup Cricket losing to last time runners-up India by five wickets in the quarterfinal in Antigua, West Indies Saturday night.
With the feat, India smartly reached the 2nd semifinal of the global meet to play Australia on Feb 2 while England will play Afghanistan in the first semis on Feb 1
This was the second consecutive defeat for Bangladesh against their giant neighbor India within a month after suffering a 103 runs defeat to eliminate from the semifinal of the Youth Asia Cup held in Sharjah, just ahead of the U-19 World Cup.
Chasing an easy target of 112 runs in the Saturday's quarterfinal, India had to lose five wickets to score 117 runs with 115 balls remaining.
Read:U-19 World Cup: Bangladesh dismissed for 111 against India in QF
After the departure of opener Harnoor Singh for a duck in 1.3 overs, India never look behind to score the match-winner in 30.5 overs as opener Angkrish Raghuvanshi pairing with one down Shaik Rasheed contributed 70 runs in the 2nd wicket stand .
Raghuvanshi scored 44 runs off 65 balls hitting seven boundaries while Rasheed made a patient 26 runs off 59 balls featuring three fours.
Besides, captain Yash Dhull scored not out of 20 runs off 26 balls with four hits to fence while lower order Kaushal Tambe made an unbeaten 11 runs off 18 balls hitting the only six for his team.
Ripon Mondal of Bangladesh bowled superbly to grab four wickets for 31 runs in his nine over spell with a maiden while Tamzim Hasan Sakib took the remaining wicket giving away 34 runs.
Earlier, sent in to bat first,Bangladesh U-19 team were bundled out cheaply for 111 runs in 37.1 overs to give an easy passage for India to reach semifinal .
Bangladesh faced initial batting collapse losing top three wickets--- Mofijul Islam (2), Iftakher Hossain(1) and Prantik Nawrose Nabil (7) -- for just 14 runs in 7. 4 overs.
At one stage, Bangladesh were struggling for 56 for 7 in 23.4 overs losing the wickets of captain Rakibul Hasan and reliable batter Aich Mollah.
But, SM Meherob pairing with Ashiqur Zaman repaired the early damage scoring 50 runs in the 8th wicket stand and guided the team toward 100 plus runs.
Number right batter Meherob contributed 48-ball 30 runs featuring six boundaries while Ashiqur made 29-ball 16 runs with a boundary.
Two down Aich Mollah was the another Bangladeshi batter scoring double figure -- 17 runs off 48 balls --hitting the only six of the innings.
Left arm pacer Ravi Kumar made the major damage in Bangladesh innings grabbing three wickets for 14 runs in seven overs with a maiden and was adjudged man of the match.
Read: U-19 World Cup: Bangladesh to play India Saturday
Vicky Ostwal took two wickets for 25 runs in nine overs also with a maiden.
The Young Tigers, led by Akbar Ali, clinched their first ever Under-19 World Cup crown beating India by three wickets in the final in South Africa in 2020.
But, the performances of Rakibul Hasan- led Bangladesh U-19 team was not up to the mark this time. as they were eliminated from the Youth Asia Cup losing to India in the semifinal in Sharjah recently .
Moreover, they made a frustrating start in the ongoing U-19 World Cup losing to England by seven wickets in the opening match.
However, Bangladesh reached the quarterfinal as the group runners-up beating Canada by eight wickets and UAE by nine wickets.