Bangladesh will face South Africa today (Wednesday) in the fifth-place deciding play-off match in the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup at Queenstown Events Centre in New Zealand to conclude their campaign from the world event.
The battle of the future stars’ will begin at3:30 am(Bangladesh time) and10:30am(NZ time)on Wednesday.
Bangladesh will be full of confidence ahead of this encounter after producing an impressive performance for a five-wicket victory against England in the fifth place play-off semifinal at the same venueon Sundaylast where the Young Tigers’ were comfortable with their most complete display of the competition so far.
The star of the show in Bangladesh’s victory over England with three wickets and 71, Afif Hossain, an 18-year-old off-spinning all-rounder, will be hoping to finish his tournament with a bang. He has registered three half-centuries in five innings so far but has yet to reach three figures. Bangladesh’s final fixture would be the perfect time to do it.
Bangladesh started the tournament campaign with comfortable victories by 87 runs and by66 runs against Namibia and Canada respectively, before coming unstuck in their final Group C encounter against England. They lost to England by seven wickets and then losing heavily at the hands of India by 131 runs in the Super League quarter-finals.
South Africa started with wins against Kenya and West Indies before losing to New Zealand in a fixture which decided the winner of Group A. That set up a Super League quarter-final versus Pakistan, which they narrowly lost by three wickets, before they exacted revenge against the Kiwis in the fifth place play-off semi-final, claiming a 73-run victory.
It’s been a case of all or pretty much nothing for South Africa’s captain Which van Tonder so far in the competition. He has notched two centuries, the second of which was a superb 117 in their last outing against New Zealand, but mustered only six runs in his other three knocks.
Bangladesh are making their 11th appearance at the ICC U19 CWC, 20 years after making their debut in South Africa.
Enamul Haque holds the tournament record for the most wickets in a single edition of the competition, having taken 22 wickets on home soil in 2004, while Anamul Haque (365) and Shadman Islam (406) finished as top run-scorer in 2012 and 2014 respectively. Bangladesh’s best result of third place was achieved in the 2016 edition on home soil.
This is South Africa’s 11th ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup appearance. After four near-misses – they came third at the 1998 and 2012 events, and were runners-up in 2002 and 2008 – they finally registered their maiden triumph in 2014, with a team featuring current Test players Aiden Markram, Andile Phehlukwayo and Kagiso Rabada. That was followed by their joint-worst performance, as they failed to make the quarter-finals in 2016, finishing 11th in the final analysis.
