Afghanistan Under-19 team finished their tour of Bangladesh on a happy note as they beat the hosts by three wickets in the one-off youth Test at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium in Sylhet. This was Afghanistan’s debut youth Test match.
For the visitors, Bilal Sayedi batted exceedingly well in both innings- a fine century in the first innings and a match-winning 54 in the second. With the ball, Bilal Sami and Izharulhaq Naveed bagged eight wickets each in the match.
Bangladesh Under-19 weren’t in a bad position at 170 for four in their second innings at stumps on day three, leading by 51 runs. But Afghanistan made early inroads on day four as Izharulhaq Naveed got the better of a well-set Aich Mollah before Bangladesh added anything to the overnight score. Naveed was the wrecker-in-chief for the visitors. He picked up four of the six wickets Bangladesh lost on the final day of the match.
SM Meherob played an enterprising knock of 30 off 39 lower down the order that included two boundaries and as many maximums. But the hosts were not able to show much resistance and were bundled out for 228. They couldn’t add more than 58 to their overnight total and lost the remaining six wickets.
Izharulhaq Naveed registered a four-for in the second innings after returning four for 45 in the first innings. Bilal Sami, who got five in the first innings, bagged three too. Prantik Nawrose Nabil was the only batter to notch up a fifty-plus score for Bangladesh in the match (76 in the second innings).
Afghanistan Under-19 weren’t off to the best of starts chasing a small target of 110. They lost opener, Suliman Safi, in the first over. The hosts kept on getting breakthroughs at regular intervals and made the contest interesting. Afghanistan, at one stage, were 70 for five and Bangladesh were putting pressure on them.
But Bilal Sayedi, who scored a fine century in the first innings, made Bangladesh bowlers toil hard. He stitched a vital 38-run partnership for the fifth wicket with Kamran Hotak before getting dismissed for 54. But he did his job quite well as Afghanistan were just two runs away from victory when he got out. Naveed perished in the next over as well but it was too late for the hosts. Nangeyalia Kharote hit the winning runs and Afghanistan reached the target with three wickets in hand. Ripon Mondol, Aich Mollah and Mushfik Hasan took two wickets apiece.
Bangladesh Under-19, batting first in the match, were all-out for 162. Afghanistan Under-19 took a substantial lead of 119 in the first innings and restricted the hosts to 228 in the second innings.
Earlier, Bangladesh won the first three youth ODIs of the five-match series but the visitors bounced back really well by winning the remaining two matches.
