Bangladesh, England cruise to easy wins

Middle-order batsman Tawhid Hridoy hit a superb century and Afif Hossainproduced a fine all-round performance as Bangladesh defeated Canada by66 runs to notch up their second victory in the ICC U-19 World Cup 2018and strengthened their chances of progressing to the Super League stagefrom Group C.Tawhid scored 122 and Afif backed up his half-century with figures offive for 43 as Bangladesh successfully defended 264 for eight bydismissing Canada for 198 with three balls to spare. Bangladesh, who hadfinished third in the home event in 2016, had earlier beaten Namibia by87 runs on the opening day of the tournament on Saturday.In the other Group C match of the day, England launched their campaignwith an emphatic eight-wicket victory over Namibia after Will Jacks (73not out) and Harry Brook (59 not out) added 130 runs for the unbrokenthird wicket in just under 15 overs as the 1998 champions achieved the197-run target with more than half the quota of overs remaining.Bangladesh lost a couple of early wickets, after being put in to bat atthe Bert Sutcliffe Oval in Lincoln, but Tawhid took the mantle onhimself to see the team to a competitive score of 264 for eight in 50overs.He slammed nine fours and one six in a 126-ball 122 and also stitchedtwo useful partnerships in the process. He added 62 for the secondwicket with Mohammad Naim Sheikh (47, 67b, 5x4) and 111 for the thirdwith Afif Hossain (50, 59b, 5x4, 1x6).Canada fast bowler Faisal Jamkhandi was the pick of the bowlers,effective with both the new ball and the old. He finished with figuresof 8-0-48-5 that included the important scalps of Pinak Ghosh (0) andTawhid.In reply, Canada were bowled out for 198 in 49.3 overs with captainArslan Khan getting 63 off 108 balls and opener Pranav Sharma 34 off 58balls.Off-spinner Afif followed up his 59-ball 50 with figures of 10-0-43-5,while Hasan Mahmud took two for 23 as Canada were never to make a chaseof it. Afif, for his outstanding all-round performance, was lateradjudged player of the match.Bangladesh captain Mohamed Saif Hassan was happy at his team’sperformance: “We played very well. First (we lost) two early wickets andthen (there was) the recovery. Then we had some good battingpartnerships Tawhid got a hundred and Afif got a fifty and we had a goodscore on the board. Then the bowlers did the job very well,” he said.England v NamibiaElecting to bat first in Queenstown, Namibia could not get thepartnerships going in the face of some tight bowling from the 1998champions and were restricted to 196 for nine in 50 overs.Shaun Fouche (44) and Nicol Loftie-Eaton (36) were the notable scorersas leg-spinner Luke Hollman led the England bowling with a haul of threefor 41. Fast bowlers Tom Scriven and Harry Brook grabbed two wicketseach conceding 30 and 32 runs, respectively.Brook also got the winning runs later in the day as he partnered withWill Jacks in an unbroken 130-run stand. Number-four batsman Brookstroked a quick 48-ball 59 with 12 fours but number-five batsman Jacksovershadowed Brook with a brisk 44-ball 73 that comprised 12 fours and asix.Jacks, who was declared player of the match, said: “We have played theseguys a few times before and knew what we were going to expect, we cannow look to push forward from this to our game against Bangladesh onThursday.“For the first game of the tournament, you just like to hit the groundrunning and start with a good performance bat and ball, and we did thattoday. The captain has been playing very well recently, in South Africaand in the warmup game, he’s very important for us.”