U-19s suffer first defeat

A change of venue saw Bangladesh's under-19 outfit crash to their first defeat of the tour against their South African counterparts at the City Oval yesterday.

The junior Tigers, who prior to the match yesterday led the seven-match youth ODI series 2-0, went down by seven wickets.

Batting first, the visitors were bundled out for 165 in 49.2 overs. Off-spinner Dean Foxcroft scalped three wickets, while pacers Wiaan Mulder and Conor McKerr took two each to run through Bangladesh's batting order.

In reply, the hosts, courtesy of an unbeaten 89 from Liam Smith, raced to their target in 37.5 overs. Smith hit 13 fours and a six in his 113-ball innings and ensured that he stayed till the end in order to get his side's first win.

Bangladesh's batting order fired in the first two matches. However, the pacers got the better of them yesterday. After opener Saif Hassan was run-out in the fourth over, the rest of the top-order batsmen were deceived and the visitors found themselves in a precarious 66 for 5 at the end of 23 overs.

They didn't manage to recover from there. In fact, had it not been for a 42-run stand for the last wicket between Mosabbek Hossain and Saleh Ahmed, it could have been even worse for the visitors.

Mosabbek top-scored for Bangladesh with 29 runs, while Mohammad Saifuddin accompanied him with 25.

Earlier this year, the South Africans had lost a 7-match youth ODI series in Bangladesh 6-1.