A brilliant century by opener Ashiqur Rahman Shibli guided Bangladesh to clinch their first-ever Asian Cricket Council (ACC) U-19s Asia Cup title with all-win record beating hosts United Arab Emirates, or UAE, by 195 runs in the final at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday.
This is the maiden title for any Bangladesh team in the Asian level cricket after Bangladesh national cricket team deprived of the Asia Cup title despite of playing finals on three occasions --2012, 2016 and 2018
Bangladesh Youth team under the leadership of Akbar Ali won the ICC U-19 World Cup Cricket crown in 2020 beating India in the final.
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With victory in the final, Bangladesh beat UAE twice in the tournament, after winning by 61 runs in the Group B opener
Sent into bat first in the final, Bangladesh piled 282 runs for 8 wickets in stipulated 50 overs - a big score going by the tournament's standards.
After the departure of opener Jishan Alam for 14, Ashiqur and Chowdhury Md Rizwan contributed a poilshed 125 run- partnership for the 2nd wicket, before Rizwan fell for a well-made 60 off 71 balls, with four fours and a six.
Opening batsman -cum- wicketkeeper Ashiqur, who scored an unbeaten 116 against Sri Lanka in the last Group B match, again displayed his brilliance hammering
129 runs off 149 balls hitting 12 fours and one six.
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Later, he was adjudged man of the match and man of the series.
Ariful Islam, batting at number 4, made a half century contributing just 50 runs off 40 balls with six hits to the fence while captain Mahfuzur Rahman Rabby quickfired 11-ball 21 runs with two fours and a six.
Ayman Ahamad grabbed four Bangladesh wickets for 52 runs, Dhruv Parashar and Hardik Pal took one wicket each.
Chasing the target of 283 runs, hosts UAE were bundled out cheaply for just 87 in 24.5 overs to suffer a humiliating defeat, with only two batsmen scoring the double digits.
Two down Dhruv Parashar contributed the team' s highest and unbeaten 25 runs off 40 balls including two boundaries while opener Akshat Rai scored 22-ball 11 runs with one boundary.
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Rohanat Doullah Borshan and Maruf Mridha claimed three UAE wickets each conceding 26 and 29 runs respectively while Sheikh Parvez Jibon and Iqbal Hossain Emon grabbed two wickets each giving away 7 and 15 runs respectively.
A good number of Bangladesh fans gathered at the Dubai Stadium to encourage the team.
Earlier, Bangladesh booked a seat for the final eliminating their giant neighbor India by four wickets with 41 balls remaining while hosts UAE emerged as the surprished finalist beating stronger Pakistan by 11 runs in the semifinals.
Bangladesh emerged Group B champions to reach semifinals with all-win record securing full six points , hosts UAE finished group runners up to qualify for the semis collecting four points
On the other hand, Pakistan emerged Group A champions securing full six points while India finished group runners up collecting four points to reach the semifinal.
Bangladesh made a flying start in the four-team Group B outplaying United Arab Emirates (UAE) by 61 runs in the first match.and outplayed Japan by nine wickets with 232 balls remaining in the 2nd match and eliminated Sri Lanka besting them by six wicket in last group match,
Meanwhile, senior cricketers Mushfiqur Rahim, Tamim Iqbal and Mehedi Hasan Miraz congratulated Bangladesh U-19 team for their triumphant victory in the ACC U-19 Asia Cup.