Hosts Bangladesh lost both their Youth (U-17) and Junior (U-19)-level group matches of the four-nation Bangabandhu IHF Challenge Trophy Women’s Handball 2023 at the Shaheed Captain (Retd) M Mansur Ali National Handball Stadium here .

In the Youth (U-17) Group, defending champions India beat Bangladesh 43-33 in an entertaining encounter that had nothing riding on it, as both teams had already qualified for Wednesday's final. The exact same situation prevailed in the Junior (U-19) Group, ahead of its own final Wednesday. The gulf in the U-19s however was impossible not to notice. India thus outplayed Bangladesh 40-18 goals Monday afternoon.

After the day's matches, Holders India clinched top slot of both the groups to reach finals with all-win record in three matches while Bangladesh also assured the final berth with two wins and a defeat.

Earlier, India and Bangladesh reached the finals of both the Youth and Junior groups of the 3rd edition of the prestigious meet with one match to spare crushing Nepal and Maldives in their first two matches. All matches were played at the same venue.

Bangladesh and India will meet each other again in the finals of both the youth and junior groups on Wednesday (May 17) at the same venue.

Despite the day’s defeat, Bangladesh U-17 team’s coach Dalia Akter was fairly happy with the performance of her girls.

She said: "Two of my important players could not play today’s match due to injury. Moreover, we got only one month to prepare for the tournament. As such the girls played absolutely very well against a team like India, because India has been playing handball for a long time and they are very experienced. We also put up a fierce fight with them. I’ll make some changes in strategy against this team in the final and I think these girls have the potential to play better.”

In the day' s remaining group matches, the Maldives earned their first victory in their 3rd matches beating Nepal in both the Youth and Junior sections on Monday.

The Maldives beat Nepal by 42-11 goals in Youth (U-17) group and again they beat Nepal by 25-10 goals in the Junior Group.

The two teams--the Maldives and Nepal will face each other in the 3rd-place deciding match on Tuesday (May 16) afternoon at the same venue.

Tuesday’s 3rd place-deciding matches:
Maldives vs Nepal (U-17) at 2 pm
Maldives vs Nepal (U-19) at 4 pm.