U19 World Cup: Tigers' performance in the group stage

Under-19 cricket World Cup is underway. Last year's champion Bangladesh team successfully passed the group stage again. Bangladesh won two of the three matches in the group stage and lost one. The Rakibuls have entered the quarter finals as group runners up. Before the start of the Youth World Cup, Bangladesh youth team captain Rakibul said that their goal is to play in the semi-finals. The team is also walking in that path. Before going to the field in the quarter finals, let's take a look at the performance of the Bangladesh team in the three matches of the group stage:

 Bangladesh vs England: The youngsters of Bangladesh played against England in their first match in the group stage of the Under-19 World Cup. In their first match, Bangladesh team performed very poorly. They went down to bat first and were bowled out for only 97 runs. In the end, if bowler Ripon Mandal had not scored 33 runs, there would have been doubts as to whether Bangladesh would have scored half a century. Bangladesh did not get much in batting in that match. Ripon Mandal's 33-run innings proved that he has the ability to score runs with the bat at the end.

Bangladesh was also dull at bowling in that match. It is also normal to be dull. Because, it is foolish to expect to win after scoring 97 runs against a team like England in a match of 50 overs. In that match Bangladesh bowlers were able to take 3 wickets. The match was lost by 7 wickets.

 Bangladesh vs Canada: After losing the first match, Bangladesh team focused more on practice, especially batting. Bangladesh also got the result of rigorous practice. The Rakibuls picked up a big win of 8 wickets in their second match. Not only did they win against Canada, but Bangladesh won the match with a bang.

Canada scored 136 runs before batting against Bangladesh. Ripon Mandal was great with the ball that day. He took 4 wickets for 24 runs. Like Ripon, Meherb was brilliant with the ball. He also took 4 wickets. It did not cost much for Bangladesh to bat down in reply to 137 runs. Iftir's unbeaten 61 and Nabil's 33 helped the Tigers to an 8-wicket victory with almost 20 overs to spare.

 Bangladesh vs UAE: Rain interrupted the third and final match of the group stage. Bangladesh won the match by 9 wickets against the United Arab Emirates. Bangladesh also batted later in that match. Batting for 50 overs seemed to be the ultimate goal of the UAE. Despite much efforts, they could not bat for full 50 overs. Batting like a test innings they managed to survive till 48.1 overs. The UAE gave Bangladesh a target of 149 runs in that match. Rain disrupted the match after batting for that goal a little and the new target for Bangladesh was 107 runs. Bangladesh achieved that target with 9 wickets and 25 overs in hand.

Passing the group stage, Bangladesh team is now in the quarter finals. Bangladesh will have to fight against India in the quarter finals. Which is one of the strongest teams of the event. Winning against India is not going to be easy, but it is also not impossible. It remains to be seen whether Bangladesh will be able to reach the semi-finals after winning against India.