The U19 World Cup has reached its last stages as West Indies will face host Bangladesh in the second semifinal to be Dhaka on Thursday. “Coming from the West Indies where most of the balls don’t spin that much and coming here to Bangladesh where the ball spins, the guys just needed a little time to adjust to the pitches and to the weather, all in one”, said Shimron. This will be the first-ever final between the two sides at the age-group level.
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However, Bangladesh skipper Mehidy Hasan top-scored with 60, reviving the innings with a 85-run stand for the sixth wicket with Mohammad Saifuddin (36), after half the side had been dismissed for 113 runs.
In the chase, the West Indies looked on their way to a win, but lost quick wickets as they neared their target. Mosabbek Hossain denied the bowler a hat-trick, but Paul finished with impressive figures of 3/20 from just three overs.
The score was 181 for 6 at that point, but the seventh-wicket partnership of 36 between Springer and Michael Frew took West Indies to the doorstep of a memorable win.
However, van Lingen (4-24) took a four wicket haul while Fritz Coetzee (3-34) claimed three victims as Nepal were eventually bowled out for 210 runs in 44.2 overs.
West Indies captain Shimron Hetmyer said he was comfortable with the outcome.
Springer kept his end up and punished the loose balls before ending the match with two consecutive boundaries through the covers off Saifuddin.
The move sees the bowler remove the bails before delivering the ball to run out the non-striking batsman who is caught out of his crease when preparing to run.
“We had five overs left with five wickets in hand”.
“Springer was excellent as always”.
“They (Bangladesh U-19) had great strides forward in the last couple of weeks”. Possibly, if we play as well as we did today, we’ll win the final as well. “It will be a very good contest”.
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After making a slow start to the tour, West Indies have consistently improved and manager Dwain Gill is hoping this progress can be reflected against the Bangladeshis. In their 2012 title winning campaign, however, the captain said payments ranged from nearly $60,000 to more than $135,000. “But I am happy with the way the team fought till the end”. Bangladesh skipper Miraz was disappointed as he had a dream of playing the final but believed that playing the semifinal for the first time was itself an achievement for them. “We will still try to finish third in the tournament”. But their bowling lineup is strong and they did chased down a total of 200+ against Nepal in quarter-final hence, they know how to play in the pressure situations.
