Cricket news round-up – January 31: Zimbabwe eye historic win in rain-affected Harare Test

Zimbabwe need to bowl out Sri Lanka on Day 5 at Harare to win their first ever Test against Sri Lanka; Bangladesh Under-19s reached the semifinals of the World Cup; and Chris Gayle will play for the Pokhara Rhinos in the Everest Premier League.

Zimbabwe need 10 wickets, Sri Lanka need to bat a day

Zimbabwe need to bowl out Sri Lanka on Day 5 to win their first ever Test against the tourists. Of the 19 Tests between the two teams, Sri Lanka have won 14, while 5 have ended in a draw.

Had it not rained, Zimbabwe might have declared on Day 4, with a chance to have a shot at the Sri Lankan openers at the fag end of the day. Instead, they finished the day on 241/7, with a lead of 354, and will almost certainly declare overnight.

The day’s play was dominated by Brendan Taylor (67 in 75 balls) before Sean Williams (47*) took charge. Vishwa Fernando picked up 2/43 and Lasith Embuldeniya 2/81.

Bangladesh reach Under-19 World Cup semi-finals

Bangladesh Under-19 knocked out hosts South Africa with a resounding 104-run win in the quarterfinal at Potchefstroom. They will now meet New Zealand in the semifinal.

Asked to bat, Bangladesh put up 261/5 largely due to fifties from Tanzid Hasan (80), Towhid Hridoy (51), and Shahadat Hossain (74*) even as Pheko Moletsane picked up 2/41.

In response, quick wickets at every step dented South Africa’s progress. Luke Beaufort’s 60 was the only contribution of note as Rakibul Hasan (5/19) skittled them out for 157.

Sri Lanka, UAE, Canada Under-19s win as well

Sri Lanka beat Scotland by 97 runs using the DLS Method in the Under-19s World Cup 9th Place Playoff Semi-Final. Navod Paranavithana (54), Nipun Dananjaya (66), and Ahan Wickramasinghe (59 in 50 balls) took Sri Lanka to 277/6. With 3/31, Chamindu Wijesinghe then helped restrict Scotland to 149/8 in 40 overs.

UAE and Canada won their respective matches in 13th Place Playoff Semi-Finals as well. For UAE, Rishabh Mukherjee (4/35) and Aryan Lakra (3/20) bowled out Nigeria for 145 before Alishan Sharafu (59*) guided them to a 7-wicket win in the 30th over.

Elsewhere, Nicholas Manohar’s 101 helped Canada pile up 300/7. Japan then reached 73/1 before collapsing for 118, Akhil Kumar doing most of the damage with 6/46.

Universe Boss to go to Pokhara

Chris Gayle has signed a contract with the Pokhara Rhinos in the Everest Premier League, the domestic T20 tournament of Nepal. This will be the eighth country in whose domestic T20 league Gayle will feature in, after Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Pakistan, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and obviously West Indies.

Gayle has also announced that he is not going to retire from T20 cricket anytime soon, though he has not been playing T20Is for West Indies for some time.