U-19 Asia Cup: India beats Bangladesh by 5 runs

India U-19 beat Bangladesh U-19 by five runs to win the 2019 ACC Asia Cup at the RPS stadium in Colombo on Saturday. This is India's seventh triumph in the continental tournament for junior cricketers.

Both the semifinals, scheduled on Thursday, had been washed out.India and Bangladesh U-19 sides made the final at the expense of Sri Lanka andAfghanistan after finishing on top of their respective groups.

Earlier in the day, only three Indian batsmen managed to reachdouble-digit scores. Captain Dhruv Jurel and all-rounder Karan Lal made 33 and37 respectively to take India to 106.

Pacer Mrittunjoy Chowdhury and off-spinner Shamim Hossain pickedup three wickets each, while there were also a couple of run-outs, as theIndians were bowled out in 32.4 overs.

In the run-chase, Bangladesh struggled too at 16/4 as left-armfast bowler Akash Singh claimed three of the first four wickets.

Skipper Akbar Ali steadied the ship, along with Mrittunjoy, butthere was a minor rain delay in the game when Bangladesh was on 78/6 in 19.4overs.

The extras had also put India U-19 on the back foot. The Indiansconceded 18 extra runs in a low-scoring game, as opposed to Bangladesh's four.

Immediately after the restart, both the set batsmen threw awaytheir wickets after playing poor shots. The advantage was handed back to India.

A ninth-wicket partnership between Tanzim Hasan Sakib and Rakibul Hasan threatened to take the game away from India but orthodox bowler Atharva Ankolekar held his nerve to hand the defending champion the victory once again.

Ankolekar deservedly won the player of the match award for taking five wickets, while opener Arjun Azad bagged the player of the series honour for scoring 202 runs in four games this tournament.