Bangladesh beat Nepal by 5 wickets to keep U-19 World Cup hopes alive

Bangladesh U-19 displayed a clinical performance with bat and ball against Nepal U-19 to win their Super Sixes Group 1 match by five wickets at Bloemfontein on Wednesday.

But despite the win, they remain third on the table with four points while Pakistan and India have six points and only the top two teams will go on to play the semi finals.

Bangladesh will face Pakistan in their final Super Sixes match and a win there would take them up to six points but then net run rate will come into play. 

Quickfire fifties from opener Jishan Alam (55 runs from 43 balls) and in-form batter Ariful Islam (59 not out from 38 balls) helped the Young Tigers reach the target of 170 set by Nepal with 148 deliveries to spare and that should boost their net run rate.

However, the platform was laid earlier by the bowlers, especially fast bowler Rohanat Doullah Borson, who took 4-19 and was adjudged the Player of the Match.

"I wasn't left out, to be honest, management just gave me rest so that I could prepare for super sixes. I'm quite pleased with my performance, I'm more pleased that we have won the match, we have kept our semi-final dreams alive, so that's more pleasing to me. The surface as I mentioned earlier, wasn't that quick, because of the new ball, there was Lacquer, there was a bit of carry and later on, nothing. But it was still a good wicket to bat on and we chased down total in 25 overs. We are in very good shape, me, Maruf (Mridha), (Iqbal Hossain) Emon, we know ourselves and we are honest with our work. The physio and coach have helped us and all three of us want to continue this and make our dreams come true," Borson said at the post-match presentation.