Bangladesh won the title of champion by defeating UAE by 195 runs in the final of the Youth Asia Cup in Dubai.
Ashikur Rahman Shibli's century and Barshan-Maruf's bowling have eaten the Arab Emirates. Batting first, Ashiq's brilliant innings of 129 runs and Chowdhury Md. Rizwan (60) and Ariful Islam (50) scored 282 runs in fifty overs.
UAE never found a rhythm in their run chase. They lost wickets at regular intervals and stopped at 87 runs. In that big victory, the youth of Bangladesh have achieved the honor of being the best in Asia for the first time.
Bangladesh lost the wicket of opener Jisan Alam for just 14 runs in the last ball of the 5th over of the innings. If the first five overs in the innings go to the hosts, the next story is only Bangladesh. At first, they started a little slowly, but later on, the other two top order players, Ashiqur Rahman Shibli and Chowdhury Mohammad Rizwan, increased the pace of runs. In the second wicket partnership, the duo put on 125 runs off 154 balls. Rizwan returned to dressing room with a personal score of 60 (71).
After that, Shibli made a pair of 86 runs off 74 balls with Ariful Islam. Ariful got out after scoring 50 runs off 40 balls. But at the other end, the opener Shibli took the century. That was his second in the recently concluded Asia Cup. After a 78-ball fifty, a 129-ball century. 129 off 149 in a cameo of 29 runs from 20 balls at the end
In the end, captain Mahfuzur Rahman Rabi's 21-run cameo from 11 balls made Bangladesh 282/8. Ayman Ahmed took the maximum four wickets for the hosts.
Emirates lost the first wicket in 12 runs after going into bat with a target of 283 runs. Five batters returned to the dressing room before the 50 runs of the team losing wickets at regular intervals. The batsmen could not stand up to the cannon of the Tiger bowlers just waiting for the loss of seven wickets for 61 runs.
Losing nine wickets for 72 runs, the team fought back and came to the last wicket. That too is only a pair of 15 runs which only increased the expectation of victory of the youth of Bengal. Two pacers Maruf Mridha and Rawnat-Daula took the maximum three wickets each. Maruf gave 29 runs and Barshan 26. Another pacer Iqbal Hossain Imon took two wickets with 15 runs in just six overs. Spinner Parvez's lifetime wicket tally is equal to Emon's. He gave only seven runs in 4.5 overs.
Ashiqur Rahman Shibli was awarded the Man of the Final for his impeccable century. He is also the highest run scorer in the tournament.