Shibli ton takes Bangladesh U19s into semis as group-winners

Bangladesh opener Ashiqur Rahman Shibli scored a ton to guide the Bangladesh Under-19 team to a six-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the ACC U-19 Asia Cup 2023 at the ICC Cricket Academy in the UAE on Wednesday.

Shibli put away 11 fours and two sixes for his unbeaten 130-ball 116 as Bangladesh chased down a 200-run target with 55 balls remaining to pick up their third successive win, meaning that they go into the semifinal of the tournament as group-winners. 

Bangladesh leg-spinner Wasi Siddique's three wickets for 32 runs helped them to restrict Sri Lanka to 199 for nine. His efforts were aptly complemented by left-arm pacer Maruf Mridha and left-arm orthodox Mahfuzur Rahman Rabby who picked up two wickets each.

In reply, Bangladesh were pegged back when they lost opener Jishan Alam in the fourth delivery of the innings for nought but Shibli and Chowdhury Mohammad Rizwan steadied the ship with a 75-run stand before the latter fell after scoring a 39-ball 32. 

Shihab, who scored back-to-back fifties in his previous two matches, held his end and built partnerships with Ariful Islam and Ahrar Amin, who scored 18 and 23 respectively. The right-handed batter reached the landmark in the 37th over, taking 119 balls, and finished proceedings in the 41st over by hitting a boundary through backward square leg. 

In the other Group-B match, UAE beat Japan by 109 runs to qualify as group runners-up. 

Bangladesh will take on Group-A runners-up India in the second semifinal on December 15, while UAE will take on Pakistan in the first semi on the same day.