Bangladesh U-19 defeated Nepal U-19 by three wickets in the third and final one-day match for a 2-0 series win at the BKSP Ground in Savor, Bangladesh on Monday.
Nepal elected to bat first in the match reduced to 39 overs due to wet outfield and scored 109 in 38.1 overs. Bangladesh reached home with three overs and three wickets remaining. Nepal had lost the first match by 111 runs while the second match at Fatullah was abandoned due to rain.
Nepal began cautiously but lost Mahesh Chhetri (2) in the fifth over. Though Nepal tried to rebuild the innings, scoring slowly, it lost wickets at regular interval and in 25.1 overs, it was reeling at 66/7 with Gyanendra Malla (13), Paras Khadka (17), Anil Mandal (16), Sagar Khadka (2), Antim Thapa (3) and Rahul BK (0) back on the pavilion.
The only batsman at the crease was Puspa Thapa and he ensured Nepal reached the three figures with the help from Raj Shrestha. Puspa scored innings’ top 25 off 42 balls and was out on 35th over with scoreboard reading 100.
Raj Shrestha scored 16 off 35 balls. He was out on 109 and last man Amrit Bhattarai was bowled on his first ball.
Bangladeshi captain Sohrawardi Shuvo led the bowling with figures of 3/9 while Rubel Hossain, 3/19, and Mohd Sakil, 2/14, also made it hard for visiting Nepali team.
In reply, Bangladesh were once struggling at 37/5 in 17th over but Mithun Ali, who had scored 142 in the first match, batted patiently for 30 to add 50 runs. When he was out in 29th over, Bangladesh were 87/6. Four runs later Mahmudul Hasan got out on 19 but it target was not big and Rubel Rubel remained unbeaten on 14 to take the home team to victory.
Spinner Rahul took three wickets for 19 runs while pacer Abhaya Rana got two for 20. Paras and Raj each took a wicket.
Nepal returns home on Tuesday. The tour was a preparation event for the upcoming ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup scheduled to begin on February 17 in Malaysia.