A shaky start, with only three runs from the first five overs, was manfully survived as the young Tigers held their nerve and showed great maturity to get off to an ideal start in the ICC Under-19 World Cup with a 43–run victory over defending champions South Africa Under-19s in the opening match at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium yesterday. 

Nazmul Hossain was the chief performer with a splendid 73 as the home team justified their claim to being a balanced unit. The batting might have lacked flamboyance but showed enough sensibility on a slow pitch, the bowling -- particularly the slow bowlers -- issued a warning for the other teams and the fielding aptly showcased the team's intent toward achieving their claim as serious contenders in the tournament.  

With the comfortable victory the home team not only maintained their supremacy over their South African opponents but also took a giant step towards reaching the Super Eight stage, with their remaining two group games to be played against Scotland and Namibia in Cox's Bazar. The top two teams from each group will progress to the quarterfinals.

The left-handed Nazmul, who is playing his second Under-19 World Cup, deserves plaudits for helping his side reach a total of 240 runs after a slow start by Saif Hassan and Pinak Ghosh against disciplined bowling by the South Africans. The way the cricketer from Rajshahi paced his innings in trying conditions was simply outstanding. Initially, he rotated the strike to build his innings and then went for the big shots. Each of the three sixes he hit during his 82-ball knock was a spectator's delight. He smashed a drive off a full delivery by pacer Willem Ludick over long-off, before hitting another one off the same bowler miles into the air, and the elevation carried it over long-on.  Pieter Mulder was the victim of the third maximum as Nazmul backed away and smashed a lofted drive with a lot of power and elevation over long-on.

Before that, fellow southpaw Pinak Ghosh however released the initial pressure by hitting two consecutive boundaries against Luke Philander. The batsman from Netrokona danced down the pitch to hit a flighted delivery over the bowler's head for the first boundary of the innings in the sixth over, and in the next ball he got down early to solidly connect a sweep past square leg.

An impressive innings however ended in a wasteful manner as he was run out trying a cheeky single to see his vigil end on 43 runs.  One-down Joyraz Sheik also played brilliantly but failed to reach a half-century as he was dismissed for 46 off 50 balls, hitting six fours and a six.

It was hard to score runs on this kind of surface, which was perfectly suited to the Bangladeshi slow bowlers and South Africa struggled from the very beginning of the chase. A calm and calculated hundred from Liam Smith was not enough for the defending champions as all of the host's bowlers did their job in defending 240.

The resistance came from Smith, though he was lucky to be there after Saeed Sarker dropped a sitter when Smith was on 56, but tight bowling meant that the asking run-rate kept climbing beyond reach. Home captain Mehedi Hasan Miraz opened the bowling with his off-break and kept the openers in check in partnership with pacer Saifuddin, who struck twice to put South Africa under immense pressure even before the two most effective bowlers in Saleh Ahmed Shawon and Sanjit Saha came into the attack. The off-spin from Saeed Sarker, who took two wickets, was also noteworthy.

South Africa never got back into the match at any stage and were eventually bundled out for 197 runs and the home team left the field with their heads held high.