After winning the toss and batting first, Kalabagan would have thought that they could start well and mount the pressure on Shinepukur. The opposite, however, was what happened.

With just 18 runs on board with 8.3 overs consumed, they lost three wickets—one of which was of their star player Mohammad Ashraful. The right-handed batsman got out for a duck after playing 10 balls as Mohammad Saifuddin picked his scalp.

Sujon Hawladar picked up the two opening wickets as the openers Munim Shahriar and Jashimuddin scored 1 and 2 respectively. After that, Akbar-ur-Rahman played a fine innings to make 71 runs while being well-supported by Taibur Rahman and Mahmudul Hasan, who scored 22 and 52 respectively.

Muktar Ali and Abul Hasan made some runs in the lower order, 19 and 47*, to take the score to 232/9 after 50 overs.

For the Shinepukur bowlers, Shuvagata Hom took three wickets while Sujon Hawladar and Naeem Islam Jnr took a couple of scalps, with Mohammad Saifuddin taking one himself.

In response, Shinepukur started with a hurdle when they lost the wicket of Sabbir Hossain as he got out for a duck. A steady partnership between Shadman Islam and Uday Kaul took the score to 45 before the latter got out for 34 from 29 balls.

Shadman Islam was the next to go after making 37 from 60 balls. And then came the show of the under-19 kids as Towhid Hridoy and Afif Hossain put up a good display to take the score to 189. The former made 63 before returning to the pavilion while the latter batted on till the match was won by his team.

Afif ended the match with 67 runs to his name while captain Shuvagata Hom also carried on till the end to make 30 runs.

Abul Hasan, Shahadat Hossain, Sanjit Saha and Mahmudul Hasan got a wicket each, but couldn’t stop their team from losing the game.

Scores:

Kalabagan Krira Chakra – 232/9 after 50 overs
Shinepukur Cricket Club – 233/4 after 42.3 overs