Mohit Jangra and Siddharth Desai grabbed three wickets apiece as India eked out a narrow two-run win over Bangladesh to enter the final of the Under-19 Asia Cup here on Thursday.
Dhaka:
Opting to bat, India was all-out for 172 in 49.3 overs with Yashasvi Jaiswal top-scoring with a 69-ball 37 while Sameer Choudhary and Anuj Rawat contributed 36 and 35 respectively. The Indians were able to defend the small total, thanks to a disciplined bowling show led by pacer Jangra and left-arm spinner Desai, who shared six wickets between them. Bangladesh was all-out for 170 in 46.2 overs.
The duo ripped through the Bangladesh batting by claiming five out of its top six batsmen. Bangladesh was reduced to 65 for five by the 20th over but a 74-run partnership between Shamim Hossain (59) and wicketkeeper Akbar Ali (45) took it close to a memorable victory.
Bangladesh reached 139 for six and needed 34 runs from 14.5 overs for a win. With Hossain at the crease, it was in with a great chance to win the match. But the Indian bowlers gave nothing away and did not allow Bangladesh batsmen to score easy runs.
In the end, the efforts of the Indian bowlers paid off as Bangladesh kept losing wickets. Hossain, who was in at five, was out in the 43rd over and his team was all-out in the 47th over.
Earlier, India did not have the best of starts to its innings and had a batting slump in the middle overs with three wickets falling in quick succession. It had two good partnerships -- one of 66 for the second wicket between Jaiswal and Rawat and another of 59 between Ayush Badoni (28) and Choudhary.
Brief scores: India 172 all-out in 49.3 overs (Y Jaiswal 37, S Islam 3/16) beat Bangladesh 170 all-out in 46.2 overs (S Hossain 59, M Jangra 3/25, S Desai 3/35)