Bangladesh finished their 11th appearance of the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup placing 6th after a dismal eight-wicket loss in the 5th-place deciding play-off match at Queenstown Events Centre in New Zealand on Wednesday.
South Africa claimed the 5th spot comfortably chasing down a target of 179, scoring 180/2 in 38.3 overs, after restricting the young Tigers on 178/10 in 41.4 overs.
Batting first after winning the toss, Bangladesh stumbled with 33/5 in 8.4 overs before Afif Hossain and Shakil Hossain pieced together a spirited 96-run partnership off 18.5 balls in the 6th wicket, occupying the crease for over an hour and stymieing the early South African dominance.
Afif played the role of the aggressor, blasting seven boundaries and a pair of sixes before his timely knock of 63 off 59 balls came to an end when he was caught by Hermann Rolfes from Mnyaka’s bowling.
Shakil continued up to 165/9 in 38.3 overs and demised on 61 off 89 balls, including six boundaries, as he was caught by South African skipper Raynard van Tonder.
Tipu Sultan (18* off 24b; 2×4) and Qazi Onik (13 off 22b; 1×4) were the two other double digit scorers for Bangladesh.
Man of the match Fraser Jones 5/33 in 8 overs rattled the Young Tigers; batting castle while Akhona Mnyaka’s 3/27 in 10 overs ably supported the young Proteas did a demolition job on the Bangladesh top order.
South Africa played 38.3 overs to shore their winning vessel where skipper R van Tonder and Hermann Rolfes shared an unbeaten partnership of 117 off 21 overs in the 3rd wicket stand, starting after63/2 in 17.3 overs.
R van Tonder hammered a half century of 82* off 99 balls, including seven boundaries and two sixes while Hermann Rolfes added 44 off 51 balls with seven boundaries, in their unbeaten innings.
Opener Matthew Breetzke (36 off 61b; 2×4;1×6), caught by Hasan Mahmud off Roni Hossen, and Jiveshan Pillay (12 off 20b; 1×4), caught behind by Shakil Hossain off Qazi Onik, were dismissed on 29/1 in 7 overs and 63/2 in 17.3 overs respectively.
The two countries have met on 22 occasions at U19 level, with Bangladesh winning 14 and South Africa eight. However, at the ICC U19 CWC the form-book is reversed, with South Africa emerging victorious from five of their six meetings.
Bangladesh started the tournament campaign with comfortable victories by 87 runs and by 66 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.
