U-19 Asia Cup: Islam's 94 and Mridha's spell guides BAN to finals

Bangladesh players celebrate an Indian wicket yesterday. Pic/ACC

Ariful Islam's counter-punching fifty and a fiery spell by left-arm pacer Maruf Mridha helped Bangladesh score a facile four-wicket win over India to reach the final of the ACC U-19 Asia Cup here on Friday.

On a slightly double-paced pitch, Indian batters struggled to get going before getting bundled out for 188 in 42.4 overs, with Musheer Khan (50) and Murugan Abhishek (62) doing all the scoring for them.

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Maruf took 4-41 to give early jolts to India in the second semi-final. Despite some jitters, Bangladesh went over the line pretty comfortably in 42.5 overs with Islam (94 off 90 balls) defending the Indian charge with an engaging innings.

However, Maruf kickstarted India's poor day with a superb opening spell.

The pacer found some bounce and swing upfront to reduce India to 13-3 inside seven overs. Openers Adarsh Singh, Arshin Kulkarni and captain Uday Saharan returned without troubling the scorers much.

But Musheer and Abhishek shared an 84-run alliance for the seventh-wicket to rescue India from a precarious 61-6.

In another semi-final, UAE shocked fancied Pakistan by 11 runs to set up a date with Bangladesh in the final.

UAE made 193 all out largely thanks to a 55 (57 balls) by captain Aayan Khan and a 46 off 70 balls by opener Aryansh Sharma.

They then defended the target zealously to bowl out Pakistan to 182 all out with three balls to spare.

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