Young Tigers are in a must win situation in their second match against Ireland in the ICC Under-19 World Cup cricket to take place today at Mangaung Oval, Bloemfontein at 2:00 p.m. (BST).
Bangladesh, in a bid to regain the title, they won in 2020, began the campaign with a humiliating 84 runs defeat at the hands of the holders India on Saturday at the same venue and today’s match turned into do or die situation.
Today’s match is a big option for them to remain in contention to move into the knockout phase, as Ireland have already grabbed a seven wickets win over USA with 163 balls remaining.
So, Bangladesh will have to win the match against Ireland with good margin, as their (Bangladesh) net run rate is 1.680 and placed third in the Group A, behind India and Ireland.
After the defeat in the opening match, the Young Tigers are very much optimistic to bounce back in the do or die encounter and the skipper Mahfuzur Rahman Rabby emphasiszed on their batting, as none but only two batters (Arif and Shihab James) miserably flopped against India.
Against India, Arif scored 41 at the middle and late order James (at sixth) scored 54 runs when six batters could not score double figure and three of them were out for duck and three batters scored 10 runs (5, 4 and 1).
Rabby hoped that they would perk up their batting performances against their Ireland counterparts.
Bangladesh, who went South Africa after their exciting performances in the Asia Cup with wining the regional title, just leaving behind the giants India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, could not reflect in their first match against India.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh boys defeated India in their semifinal clash in the Asia Cup to storm into the final and just outclassed UAE (in the final) to lift their maiden title of the tournament.
But the Young Tigers failed to shine in the opening match and the way they surrendered to India is very much alarming and now to remain on the race they will have to win the match against Ireland.
To win the match against Ireland, Young Tigers would have to blaze with all guns of both bowling and batting. Specially, the recognized batters like Shihab James, Ariful Islam, Ahrar Amin, Jishan Alam, wicket-keeper Ashiqur Rahman Shibli and Rizwan Chowdhury will have to regain their own games.
In the previous match against India, there was no any big partnership apart from the fifth wicket stand between James and Arif, scored 77 runs from 20.2 overs.
However, though the performances of bowlers were comparatively better in the first match than the batters but they (bowlers) could not restrict India below 200 when only the left-arm pacer Maruf Mridha was successful bowler to pick up five wickets.
Tigers will have to face some trustworthy performers of Ireland like Ryan Hunter, Philippus Le Roux, Jordan Neill, Kian Hilton and Gavin Roulston.
Bangladesh will have to overshadow the performances of the Ireland’s players to win their challenge.