UAE made an easy work upon Afghanistan; Singapore defeated Oman and Hong Kong thrashed Saudi Arabia in the do-or-die matches to enter the quarterfinals of the ACC U-19 Cup.
UAE v Afghanistan, Group B
UAE bowled out Afghanistan for 134 runs in 30.4 overs after they were asked to field and completed the target in 37 overs losing only three wickets at the BSAM Ground, Bhaktapur.
Openers gave Afghanistan a solid start. Javid Ahmadi (24 off 19 balls) and Aimal Wafa (23 off 31 balls) shared a 45-run partnership. Each of them his five boudaries but once Syed M Fawad got them out, the batting collapsed. From 45/0, they went down to 66/6 and 106/9.
The last three batsmen contributed a few runs to help Afghanistan reach the total. No 9 Asghar Hussain Hotak scored 19 off 31 balls, No 10 Sanutullah Muheb got 11 off 17 and No 11 Izatuallah hit 13 runs.
Fawad spearheaded the bowling attack with 5/26 in his 10 overs while Qassim Zubair and Sharan Kumar each claimed two wickets.
Afghanistan scared UAE with the wicket of Shehan Dharmasena before lunch. Dharmasena who had already scored a century could only manage 2 this time. But Vivek Thomas and Sharan Kumar took the team past 50 before both went quicky.
Vivek (11 of 43) fell to Sanutullah while Sharan (27 off 59) was out to Izatullah to make it 58/3. But thenafter, Rameez Shehzad and Abdul Rahman patiently got them to the victory. Rameez scored not out 30 off 47 balls while Abdul managed to complete his half-century in 60 balls hitting four while a run was required for win.
UAE now will meet Malaysia in the quarters.
Singapore v Oman, Group C
Singapore will be the next barrier for the home team’s hopes of winning the title as they will play Nepal in the quarterfinal stage.
Singapore beat Oman by two wickets at the TU Cricket Ground for the elevation to the knockout round. Oman elected to bat first after winning the toss but failed to put up good batting. Singapore bowled them out for 129 runs in 46.3 overs and achieved the target in 42.3 overs.
Oman suffered an early blow from Mayank Dalkoti, who took three in his first 5 overs to put Oman on backfoot at 8/3. Mayank bowled exceptionally well giving away mere four runs in 10 overs.
But pick of the bowlers was Jackie Manoj who took four in 7.3 overs. Rohan Tripathi also took two. For Oman, Ahmed Balushz made 28 off 40 balls and Mohd Imran made 23 off 27 including a six.
Singapore’s chase did not started well as they lost the first wicket while five runs was on board. At 36, there was a quake as they lost four batsmen as Mustaq Syed bowled some brilliant deliveries.
Vignesh was the hero for Singapore playing the knock of 39 runs and remaining unbeaten. No 9 Jackie Manoj helped him with 22 runs while Mayank got 10.
Hong Kong v Saudi Arabia, Group D
At Tundikhel, Hong Kong also secured its berth into the quarterfinal with a 92-victory over Saudi Arabia.
Hong Kong won the toss and elected to bat to score 173 runs in 45.5 overs before being bowled out. Irfan Ahmed top scored with 42 runs. For Saudi Arabia, Imran Nasir and Shaoib Ali each took three wickets.
In reply, Saudi batsmen failed and managed 81 runs in 34.5 overs. Man of the match Irfan Ahmed took four wickets while Khuram Shehzad and Nadeem Ahmed claimed a brace each. Only Hassan Malik got good runs scoring 30 runs of 49 balls.