Zimbabwe lose to Bangladesh in final Under-19 World Cup warm-up

Bangladesh Under-19s – 277 all out in 49.5 overs (Aich Mollah 82, Ariful Islam 40, Rippon Mondol 39; Connor Mitchell 4/30, Matthew Schonken 2/48, Mgcini Dube 1/56)

Zimbabwe Under-19s – 109 all out in 35.2 overs (Emmanuel Bawa 39, Tashinga Makoni 22, Brian Bennett 12; Naimur Rohman, 3/18, Ariful Islam 2/6, Abdullah Al Mamun 2/15)

Bangladesh Under-19s won by 156 runs (Duckworth-Lewis method)

The Zimbabwe Under-19 team went down to the Bangladesh Under-19 side by 156 in their final warm-up match for the ICC Under-19 Men’s Cricket World Cup 2022 played on Tuesday at Basseterre on St Kitts.

The Bangladeshis decided to bat on winning the toss, but soon lost their opening batter, Iftakher Hossain, who was caught off Mgcini Dube for one.

The other opener, Ariful Islam, scored 40, but the bulwark of the Bangladeshi innings was the innings of 82 by their number four batter, Aich Mollah. He scored his runs off the same number of balls and hit three sixes and five fours.

The Zimbabwe Under-19s were doing well, though, when eight wickets were down for 200, four of them taken by Connor Mitchell.

Then the captain, Rakibul Hasan (36) and tail-ender Ripon Mondol (39), added 74 in less than 10 overs to turn a moderate total into a good one.

The Bangladesh Under-19s’ total was 277 all out, the last wicket falling to the penultimate delivery.

The Zimbabwe Under-19s had a difficult task in front of them, and soon lost Panashe Taruvinga without scoring.

Mitchell was playing a solid defensive role for three not out, but Emmanuel Bawa came in next and immediately launched into the attack, quickly scoring 20 not out off 14 balls, including a six and three fours.

At this point, though, 27 for one wicket off seven overs, rain stopped play, and when they returned the target had been revised, by Duckworth-Lewis, to 266.

Mitchell was out for 10 with the score at 41, but Bawa continued to attack the bowling with success.

His partners, however, were not able to push the score along quickly enough, and at 69, in the 19th over, Bawa became the fourth wicket to fall, having scored 39 off 45 balls, with a six and five fours.

After this the later batting collapsed, with the exception of Tashinga Makoni, who scored 22. The score was 104 for six at one stage, but the last four wickets all failed, and the Zimbabwe Under-19s were bowled out for 109 in 35.2 overs.

On Sunday, the Zimbabwe Under-19 side got the better of the Canada Under-19s by two runs in their first official warm-up match on St Kitts.

Prior to that, the Zimbabwe Under-19s had defeated the Ireland Under-19s by three matches to one in a preparatory one-day series played in Barbados.

Attention now turns to the ICC Under-19 Men’s Cricket World Cup 2022 proper that gets underway across the West Indies on Friday.

The Zimbabwe Under-19s are in Group C and will open their campaign against the Afghanistan Under-19s at the Diego Martin Sporting Complex in Trinidad and Tobago on 16 January, before they take on the Papua New Guinea Under-19s at the same venue on 20 January.

In their last group fixture, the Zimbabwe Under-19s will face the Pakistan Under-19s at the Queens Park Oval, also in Trinidad and Tobago, on 22 January.

The tournament format will see the top two teams from each of the four groups advance to the Super League, while the remaining teams feature in the Plate competition.