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Bangladesh crash UAE

Bangladesh warmed up well ahead of their semifinal clash against Papua New Guinea (PNG), thrashing the United Arab Emirates by nine wickets in their last Group A encounter of the Asian Youth cricket championship at the Kalang Oval ground in Singapore yesterday.

The defending champions, who will meet PNG today, had hardly any trouble to roll up the cricketers from the desert kingdom after Bikash Rana ran riot with the new-ball.

The young right-arm seamer returned with four for only 17 runs in his quota of ten overs as UAE, sent into bat by Bangladesh captain Fahim Muntasir, were bundled out for a meager 59 in 37.1 over.

In reply, Bangladesh raced on to score 61 for one in only 12.5 overs with opener Imran Ahmed hammering an unbeaten 37 off 38 balls.

Although the match left only an academic interest for Bangladesh, who had earlier stormed into the last four as Group A winner with two straight wins, Bikash meant business once the match got started under overcast condition.

He ripped through the top-order, leaving UAE tottering at five for 39 from where they could never recovered. Only Abdullah, with 11, was the lone UAE batsmen to cross the double figure mark. While extras with 17 stood highest in the unimpressive UAE total.

With this win Bangladesh maintained their all-win record in the championship. But they will have to engage in must-win semifinal against relatively strong PNG if they are to get ticket to Sri Lanka. Asian Youth cricket championship is the qualifier for the World Youth cricket championship to be staged in Colombo in January next year. Top two finishers from this Singapore showpiece will earn the right to play in Lanka.

Earlier, PNG qualified for the criss-cross semifinal by virtue of finishing second from Group B. Nepal, who topped the Group B, will take on Malaysia in the other semifinal.

The final will be held on July 11.

Result: Bangladesh won the match by nine wickets.

Man of the match: Bikash (Bangladesh)