Pacer Avesh Khan stars in India U-19's win over Bangladesh

Kolkata, November 20 - Right-arm pacer Avesh Khan's astonishing figures of 4-4 helped the India Under-19 team to a convincing 82-run win against Bangladesh in the tri-series opener at the Jadavpur University ground here on Friday.

The series, which is being considered as a perfect platform for preparations before the U-19 World Cup in Bangladesh in January, also involves Afghanistan who will play their first match against the home side on Saturday.

Khan picked up the crucial wickets of Saif Hassan (0), Pinaki Ghosh (1) and Najmul Hossain Shanto (7) to leave Bangladesh reeling at 16/3 while chasing India's modest total of 158 runs. They finally were bundled out for 76 in 22 overs. Khan's last scalp of the day was opposition skipper Mehidy Hassan Miraz.

With this win, India have collected five points and have taken a step towards featuring in the final on November 29.

After the massive jolt upfront Bangladesh could not recover and they kept on losing wickets at regular intervals. The only praise worthy effort came from the bat of Shafiul Hayet who scored 26.

Even, Miraz failed (0) with the bat and fell prey to Khan without even opening his account.

Hayet and Saeed Sarker (13) tried bringing their side back into the contest but once the duo fell it was only a matter of time.

The last two Bangladesh batsmen could not score a single run and thus gifted the match to the Indians.

Earlier in the day even the hosts had a tough time out there in the middle facing the Bangladesh bowlers.

Openers Washington Sundar and Ishan Kisan (6) managed to get only 25 runs on the board. Thereafter India lost two quick wickets in the form of Kisan and Virat Singh (0). Kisan was out caught and bowled by right arm pacer Abdul Halim and with his very next delivery the hurler rocked Virat’s citadel.

Captain Ricky Bhui did not contribute much with the willow either getting to eight runs with two boundaries as his counterpart Miraz got him out, caught.

Four more wickets fell in quick succession which left the Indian team tottering at 76/7.

The only notable contributions with the willow came from the so called ‘tail-enders’ as Anmolpreet Singh (28), Zeeshan Ansari (34) and Khan’s unbeaten 25 helped the host amass 158 runs in 45.3 overs. Sundar top scored for his side with a knock of 34 while for Bangladesh the pick of the bowlers was Miraz who grabbed figures of 3/31.

Brief Scores:

India (Sundar Washington 34, Zeeshan Ansari 34; Mehidy Hasan Miraz 3-3) vs Bangladesh (Shafiul Hayet 26; Avesh Khan 4-4)

(IANS)