U-19 World Cup: Bangladesh to face South Africa in quarter-finals

Bangladesh Under-19 cricket team is set to face their South African counterparts in the quarter-finals of the ongoing ICC Under-19 World Cup in South Africa on Thursday, reports UNB.

Bangladesh advanced to the quarter-finals as champions of Group C, beating Zimbabwe and Scotland in two consecutive matches before gaining one more point from the match against Pakistan which was washed out due to rain.

South Africa, on the other hand, were the champions of Group D, where they beat Afghanistan, Canada and the United Arab Emirates.

Bangladesh captain Akbar Ali said the quarter-finals is going to be a tight game.

“South Africa are obviously a decent side. They have a good bunch of players. But we are not focusing on them much, instead, we are thinking about our own game,” Akbar told the media.

“We failed to display a decent batting in the last group match against Pakistan. So we worked on that in the last few days. At the same time, we worked on our bowling in powerplays. We have to keep our bowling tight so that we can restrict them in a reachable total,” he added.

Two of Bangladesh main players are suffering from injuries. While Mrittunjoy Chowdhury is uncertain for the next game, Shamim Hossain is hopeful to make it.

“I am not sure about Mrittunjoy but Shamim might be fit before the game. We have to play our best game with the weapons we have,” Akbar said.