As it is that Associate members senior squads do not have enough opportunities to play agianst the full members regularly in the 50-overs format, and the scenario becomes even worse at the U19 level. The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) U19 Asia Cup is a worthwhile platform for U19 Associates to play alongside the regional heavyweights, but the short format doesn’t leave any chances of comebacks if the start is not good enough and before they come to terms of the conditions and strong opposition, their campaign is almost but over for the next edition of the tournament to come along.
The situation in the 2019 U19 Asia Cup was not so different either, as Associate members in Kuwait, Nepal and UAE found out pretty early that losses in the first one or two games are literally their end of the campaign in the tournament. Despite the truncated format, the Associate members gave good account of themselves during the group stage and put up some impressive performances against their regional heavyweights in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan (yes, a heavyweight and no pushovers anymore after their 4th place finish in 2018 U19 ICC Cricket World Cup and 2017 U19 Asia Cup win).
The only win for the Associates came for Nepal U19, who won their final group stage match against UAE U19. However, there were good performances from Nepal U19 batters in their match against Bangladesh as well, however, the bowlers were not able to turn the screws on the Bangladeshi batters to defend their total. UAE U19, who will be the only Asian Associate member in the 2020 U19 Cricket World Cup, had a good outing against the host’s, Sri Lanka, when chasing a 300+ total, ended up making 270+ in their final total. UAE’s Ansh Tandon was the only Associate player to register a century in the tournament, which he got against Sri Lanka.
For Kuwait, the opportuity to play a big tournament at the U19 level itself was a big honour and then to play against the likes of Afghanistan, Pakistan and India was the right kind of exposure needed for the youngsters, who will go back from their campaign more confident in their skills and the knowledge of their shortcomings to work upon them.
Brief Scores (Group Stage – U19 Asia Cup)
Kuwait U19 110/7 in 23 overs (Meet Bhavsar 28, Gokul Sunil Kumar 25, Akash 3/22, Purnank Tyagi 3/28, Vidyadhar Patil 1/17) lost to India U19 114/3 in 19.1 overs (Arjun Azad 60 n.o, Nehal Wadhera 18, Faez Ahmed 1/15, Abdul Sadiq 1/28) by 7 wickets
UAE U19 127 all out in 28 overs (Osama Hassan 57, Allshan Sharafu 34, Rakibul Hasan 3/26, Tanzim Hasan 3/35, Shoriful Islam 2/16) lost to Bangladesh U19 128/4 in 21.3 overs (Tanzid Hasan 45, Parvez Hossain Emon 30, Mahmudul Hasan Joy 27 n.o, Rishab Mukherjee 2/27, Sanchit Sharma 1/18) by 6 wickets
Nepal U19 159/9 in 42 overs (Rit Gautam 54, Rohit Kumar Paudel 47, Dilshan Madushanka 3/23, Navod Dinusri 3/26, Rohan Sanjaya 1/27) lost to Sri Lanka U19 159/5 in 33.4 overs (Kamil Mishara 55, Ahan Wickramasinghe 30, Avishka Tharindu 25 n.o, Rasid Khan 2/21, Pawan Sarraf 1/28, Kamal Singh Airee 1/32) by 5 wickets (D/L method)
Kuwait U19 85 all out in 27.3 overs (Meet Bhavsar 20, Govind Sunil Kumar 14, Shafiqullah Ghafari 3/12, Noor Ahmad 2/18, Fazal Haq 2/21) lost to Afghanistan U19 86/3 in 12.5 overs (Farhan Zakhail 38 n.o, Rahmanullah Khan 28, Faez Ahmed 1/6, Akhil Sajeev Nair 1/24) by 7 wickets
Nepal U19 261/8 in 50 overs (Pawan Sarraf 81, Sundeep Jora 56, Rit Gautam 32, Kushal Malla 28, Tanzim Hasan 2/51, Mohammad Shahin Alom 2/58, Minhuzur Rahman 1/35) lost to Bangladesh U19 262/4 in 49.2 overs (Akbar Ali 98 n.o, Tawhid Hridoy 60, Shamim Hossain 42 n.o, Mahmudul Hasan Joy 40, Kamal Singh Airee 2/59, Hari Bahadur Chauhan 1/17, Rasid Khan 1/49) by 6 wickets
Sri Lanka U19 326/8 in 50 overs (Ahan Wickramasinghe 73, Navod Dinusri 61, Nipun Dananjaya 60, Rohan Sanjaya 36, Chamidu Wijesighe 27, Rishab Mukherjee 3/65, Karthik Meiyappan 2/70, Sanchit Sharma 1/52, Muhammad Tahir 1/43) beat UAE U19 274/9 in 50 overs (Ansh Tandon 100 n.o, Osama Hassan 55, Allshan Sharafu 36, Syed Haider 27, Navod Dinusri 4/54, Rohan Sanjaya 2/36, Nipun Dananjaya 2/41) by 52 runs
Pakistan U19 335/9 in 50 overs (Mohammad Irfan 63, Mohammad Wasim Jr 55 n.o, Mohammad Haris 53, Fahad Munir 42, Rohail Nazir 34, Haider Ali 26, Jandu Hamoud 4/60, Abdul Sadiq 3/70, Muhammad Aamir 1/32) beat Kuwait U19 172 all out in 43.4 overs (Abdul Sadiq 60, Govind Sunil Kumar 45, Qasim Akram 4/38, Mohammad Wasim Jr 3/23, Abu Hurera 2/33) by 163 runs
Nepal U19 285/9 in 50 overs (Rohit Kumar Paudel 67, Sundeep Jora 48, Asif Sheikh 45, Rasid Khan 44, Kamal Singh Airee 41, Sanchit Sharma 3/26, Muhammad Tahir 2/62, Karthik Meiyappan 2/67, Rishab Mukherjee 1/35) beat UAE U19 125 all out in 34.4 overs (Vriitya Aravind Rudhravel 28, Allshan Sharafu 21, Sagar Dhakal 3/20, Surya Tamang 2/18, Pawan Sarraf 2/26, Rasid Khan 2/26) by 160 runs
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