Dhaka- Bangladesh U-23 Cricket team made a frustrating start in the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Emerging Teams Cup Cricket after suffering a huge 97 runs defeat against non-test playing United Arab Emirates (UAE) U-23 team in Group B opener at Karachi South End Club ground, Pakistan on Thursday.In the remaining Group B matches, Bangladesh will play Hong Kong on Friday (Dec 7) at the same venue while they will face hosts Pakistan on December 9 at Karachi National Stadium.
In the day’s opener, UAE opted to bat first after winning the toss and piled up a good total of 267 runs in 49.4 overs, featuring 102 runs in 22 overs in the opening stand by Ashfaq Ahmed and Rohon Mustafa.
Opener Ashfaq Ahmed hammered a polished 98 runs off 93 balls, hitting 16 fours and one six, one down GhulamShabber contributed 57-ball 52 runs, featuring four fours and three sixes while another opener Rohon Mustafa scored 70-ball 40 runs including six boundaries.
Besides, Shaiman Anwar (34), Mohammad Boota (13) and Mohammad Naveed (12) were the other main contributors for UAE reaching the double figures.
Shoriful Islam grabbed four UAE wickets for 55 runs, Khaled Ahmed claimed three for 65 runs while Tanvir Islam, Shafiul Islam and Mosaddek Hossain took one wicket each giving away 25, 43 and 53 runs respectively.
Chasing a target of 268 runs, Bangladesh team were all out for 170 runs in 36.5 overs, despite 54 runs in the 9th wicket stand by Shafiul Islam and Shoriful Islam.
Opener Mizanur Rahman scored the team highest 43 runs off 62 balls with four hits to the fence, number nine batsman Shafiul Islam contributed 35-ball 32 runs with the help of six boundaries, tail-ender Shoriful Islam made an unbeaten 31 runs off just 25 balls hitting one four and three sixes while lower order Afif Hossain made 17-ball 18 runs, including three boundaries.
Imran Haider and Ahmed Raza captured four wickets each conceding 35 and 50 runs respectively.
Earlier, Bangladesh put in Group B with Pakistan, UAE and Hong Kong while India, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Oman were placed in Group A of the eight-team ACC competition scheduled for December 6-10 with Group A matches billing for Sri Lanka and Group B matches in Pakistan.
On completion of group matches, co-hosted by Pakistan and Sri Lanka, top two teams from each of the group, will play in the semifinal on December 13 while the final is scheduled for December 15, all in Sri Lanka.UNB
