||CF Correspondent||

The National Cricket League commenced with two matches from each tier on Monday (October 1). The newly-introduced home-and-away format saw Sylhet Division playing in their own backyard against Dhaka Metropolis, in Tier 2.

The recently-approved rule of allowing each team to bat for up to 120 overs seemed to create no pressure on Dhaka Metro as they batted first and that perhaps helped them to keep scoring at a brisk rate.

At the end of day-1, Dhaka Metro have registered a total of 332 runs for the loss of four wickets. Their opener Shadman Islam started his season on a high as he belted a century before finally stopping at 157 runs. His previous best first-class score was 140 runs.

While the opener was at the crease, Shykat Ali and Marshall Ayub provided good support to him by scoring 42 and 50, respectively. Shamsur Rahman also played his part with a 34-run innings.

Among the Sylhet Division bowlers, Abu Jayed and Enamul Haque got a wicket each and Shahnur Rahman removed the two dangermen Shadman and Marshall.

Mohammad Ashraful and Mehrab Hossain Jnr will resume Dhaka Metro’s innings on day-2. Mehrab ended the first day with 28 runs to his name and Ashraful is unbeaten on 1 run.

Following the end of day-1, the centurion, Shadman told Cricfrenzy in an interview that he wants to contribute more his team in their six-match-long campaign and also said that seniors like Marshall and Mehrab have helped the 23-year-old with their words of advice.

He said: “When I started the innings, I wanted to do something good for the team. I tried to play for as long as possible and bat for the whole day. The team wanted a century, but a century is not enough, you’ve to make the innings bigger. I am feeling well [to have done that].

“Everyone wants to have a good start. I, too, wanted to do the same and since I have started well, I will try to offer something good to my team in all six matches.