Young Tigers take on Kiwis in semis today
Relaxed Bangladesh will take on New Zealand in the semi-final match of ICC Under-19 World Cup at JB Marks Oval in Potchefstroom on Thursday.
Tigers have the upper-hand over the Kiwis after having beaten them by 4-1 in their own den while Young Tigers’ confidence is expected to be sky-high considering they have beaten hosts South Africa in the quarter-final who were considered as a one of the title contenders.
Bangladesh are bidding to get into the final for the first time while New Zealand have not reached the final of the meet since 1998.
Bangladesh, meanwhile, topped their group after wins against Scotland and Zimbabwe, though they had the rain to thank for a no result against Pakistan which saw them topping the group.
Bangladesh will be looking forward to see left-arm spinner Rakibul Hasan, who picked a hat-trick against Scotland and followed it up with 5 wickets for 19 runs against South Africa to lead their bowling attack.
Bangladesh skipper Akbar Ali said that they are quite relaxed and wants to execute their plans in the middle without taking any load of any expectation.
“We have taken both mental and physical preparation and now it is time for us to deliver in the middle and if we can do that we can hope that the result will be on our side,” Akbar told reporters ahead of the match.
“New Zealand have been playing good cricket and we will try to bundle them out for as low as possible. They have got good batsman down the order while their batting order is quite long,” he said.
“Everyone is relaxed and everyone is taking it just as another game because it will be better if we think it as just another game instead of semi-final and final,” he added.
While there are many renowned batsman in the side, Tanzid Hasan is certainly going through some form, scoring 80 runs at the top of the order in the win against South Africa.
Tanzid also scored 71 runs when Bangladesh beat New Zealand at New Zealand last month. Team management will be eager to see that pace bowler Shoriful Islam also fires, who took 5 wickets for 43 runs when these teams last met in an ODI and claimed his fourth wicket in three innings at this tournament when he posted figures of a wicket for 28 runs.
Bangladesh won the five-game series by 4-1 matches in New Zealand in September/October 2019 and have now won six of their nine previous ODI matches against New Zealand in total. New Zealand did beat Bangladesh comfortably in a warm-up match for this tournament.
