Looking at the way the matches have gone in today’s Dhaka Premier League, it could be opined that the pitches were perhaps batting friendly. Indeed, the way the two teams batted in this game could be used as a testament to that.

Despite being put to bat first, Kalabagan are now in a steady position, thanks to the actions of former Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful. Kalabagan didn’t have a good start as they lost their first wicket with only 12 runs on board.

After that, however, Jashimuddin made a 30-ball 24 before losing his wicket to Arafat Sunny. Jatin Saxena also lost his wicket soon after, this time to Manik Khan, with only 1 run to his name.

But Mohammad Ashraful stood strong and scored a brilliant century. After Saif Hassan, Ashraful became the second person in this year’s DPL to score a century. He reached the three figure mark in 124 balls before losing his wicket to Arafat Sunny for 104 from 131 balls. Meanwhile, Taibur Rahman also reached that magic figure, finishing with 114 runs from only 109 balls.

That wasn’t, however, the final contribution as Muktar Ali’s 16-ball 40, where he laid out a brutal assault on the Prime Doleshwar bowlers, helped his team reach 290 in 50 overs with the loss of 4 wickets.

In response, Doleshwar started their chase beautifully with the help of openers Imtiaz Morshed and Liton Das. The former made 40 from 51 balls before Jatin Saxena managed to get his wicket. Fazle Mahmud fell a bit later after making 19 runs.

After that, however, no more wickets fell as Liton Das and Marshall Ayub marshalled the team to an emphatic victory. While Ayub missed out on a century by being not out at 92, Liton Das played majestically to score 143 runs in just 123 balls as Doleshwar won by 8 wickets with 5 overs in hand.