Young Tigers keen to play natural game in final against India
In their maiden ICC world event final, the Young Tigers will play defending champions India in the title deciding match of the ICC Under-19 World Cup on Sunday at Potchefstroom in South Africa on Sunday (February 9) keen to play their natural game without taking any extra pressure.
The final will begin at 2pm (Bangladesh) time and Gtv will telecast the match live.
Heading into the final, Bangladesh have played five matches and won four of them, with the other game against Pakistan in the group phase washed out. India also played five matches and won all of them. It means whoever wins the final will be crowned unbeaten champions.
In the semifinal, Bangladesh beat New Zealand by six wickets riding on a century by Mahmudul Hasan Joy who had earlier hit a century and made a 99 against the same opponents in an away series in 2019.
Bangladesh captain Akbar Ali said they are not taking additional pressure on themselves thinking much about the final. They instead are looking forward to playing their natural game and take it as just another game.
“If we think we have to win, we have to lift the World Cup, it will put additional pressure on us. We just want to take it as a normal game as we have done in the previous part of the tournament,” Akbar Ali told the media on Saturday.
India are conventionally a team who depend on their batting force. It is no different in this World Cup. India won three of their last five games batting first. Bangladesh, on the other hand, were more comfortable to chase.
“India are obviously a tremendous team. They have been performing well in all of the departments of the game. They are still unbeaten in the tournament like we are. I hope the final is going to be a good clash of cricket,” Akbar further told the media.
Bangladesh captain said they are not heeding much about the opponent before the final. They instead are focusing to execute their own gameplan on the field.
“We have been doing great with both ball and bat for a long time. The batsmen are doing well at the top of the order and bowlers are delivering with a good economy rate. If we can do the same thing against India, the result will come to our way. Instead of thinking much about our opponent, we are focusing on our game,” Bangladesh captain further said.
Although Bangladesh are a strong contender of this U-19 World Cup, India are far ahead of them in terms of winning many games. Before this final, Bangladesh and India faced each other in 22 Youth ODIs with India winning 18 games and Bangladesh three.
As per the latest weather update, the rain is unlikely to hit the game. In any case there is a reserve day on February 10.
Bangladesh squad: Towhid Hridoy, Shoriful Islam, Tanzid Hasan, Rakibul Hasan, Shahadat Hossain, Shamim Hossain, Akbar Ali (c & wk), Mahmudul Hasan Joy, Parvez Hossain Emon, Tanzim Hasan Sakib, Hasan Murad, Avishek Das, Prantik Nawrose Nabil, Shahin Alam and Meherob Hasan
India squad: Priyam Garg (c), Kartik Tyagi, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Divyansh Saxena, Ravi Bishnoi, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Siddhesh Veer, Akash Singh, Atharva Ankolekar, Sushant Mishra, Vidyadhar Patil, Shubhang Hegde, Shashwat Rawat and Kumar Kushagra
