The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

Bangladesh reached the quarter-final of the ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup with one match in hand beating Ireland by eight wickets at the Bayueams Oval in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.

The Young Tigers, who made a flying start outplaying Bermuda by huge 178 runs in their first match last Monday, will play the remaining group match against another quarterfinalist England on Friday (Feb 22) to decide the Group D champions at the Royal Selangor Club in Kuala Lumpur.

Sent into bat first, Ireland were all out for 123 in 43.4 overs against devastating bowling by Mahmudul Hasan, who grabbed four wickets for 17 in 6.4 overs with a maiden. Later, Hasan was adjudged man of the match.

After the dismissal of top four wickets for 45 runs in 16.4 overs, middle order JNK Shannon tried to rebuild the Ireland innings with patient 31 runs off 73 balls that included four fours. But failed in his attempt, caught by Ashiqul Islam off a Rubel Hossain delivery leaving team total at 87 for 7 in 31.4 overs.

Besides, lower order GJ Thompson (19), middle order A Balbirnie (11) and opener C Dougherty (11) were the other Irish batsmen who reached double figures.

Apart from Mahmudul Hasan's four-wicket haul, Rubel Hossain bagged two wickets for 32 runs while Nasir Hossain, Shubashish Roy and Dollar Mahmud took one wicket each for 13, 16 and 22 runs respectively.

Chasing an easy target, the Young Tigers made a solid start scoring 63 runs in the opening stand and finally reached the target making 126 for the loss of two wickets in 22.3 overs.

In the day's (Wednesday) other matches, hosts Malaysia upset Zimbabwe by 70 runs at MPTI ground, West Indies outplayed Papua New Guinea by 176 runs at the Royal Selangor Club ground while Sri Lanka defeated Namibia by 163 runs at the University Sains Malaysia.

Today's matches: New Zealand vs Malaysia, South Africa vs Papua New Guinea, Nepal vs Namibia, and Bermuda vs Ireland.