Foiled by Caribbean flair
Mehedi Hasan Miraz ran like a cheetah fuelled by delirious anger, as if the dream to reach the final of the ICC Under-19 World Cup had come true. In reality it was just the fall of West Indies' second wicket. Perhaps the celebration was caused by the expectation that the West Indies batting, as usual, would start to crumble against the spinners but it was not to be as the Caribbean youngsters displayed a clinical approach to overhaul the home side's total of 226 runs with eight balls to spare to set up a final against India on February 14 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur, the site of their semifinal triumph over the hosts yesterday. Bangladesh's journey, which had started a year and a half ago, ended with a three-wicket defeat as West Indies clinched their second berth in the final of the showpiece event -- their first was in 2004, also in Bangladesh.
West Indies were cruising at 147 for three after Miraz dismissed openers Gidron Pope (38) and Tevin Imlach (14) but seemed to be buckling under pressure after captain Shimron Hetmyer fell for 60. They lost two more wickets for 34 runs but player-of-the-match Shamar Springer, who earlier bowled an incisive spell of 10-2-36-2, held his nerve to take his team to victory with an unbeaten 62.
The Caribbean boys proved that they learned a lot from their 3-0 defeat to Miraz and Co in the pre-tournament build-up about how to handle the spin bowlers and acclimatise to the slow pitches, and that was evident in their consecutive wins against two sub-continental opponents -- Pakistan in the quarterfinal and Bangladesh in the semifinal. But ordinary bowling and poor batting from the home side made the things easy for the West Indies Under-19s, who had a poor record against the Young Tigers but did the right things in the right time.
It could have been the day of 'Captain Cool' Miraz as he first showed lot of character during batting after his side were reduced to 88 for four in 21.4 overs. Opener Pinak Ghosh and Saif Hasan once again failed to give a good start after Miraz decided to bat first in foggy conditions. There was not much movement from Alzarri Joseph and Chemar Holder but it seemed Bangladesh's top order panicked when faced with their pace.
Miraz and Mohammad Saifuddin's 85-run sixth wicket stand however gave some hope of reaching the 250-run mark but Keemo Paul turned the tables on them by dismissing both batsmen in consecutive deliveries in the 46th over and thus, despite Miraz's 74-ball 60, the home team failed to put up a challenging total.
Bangladesh's bowling lacked bite, and they performed far below their reputation as a good fielding unit, but eventually they just did not have enough runs on the board to make sure the 10,000-strong partisan crowd went home in good cheer.
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