Shuvagata’s century goes in vain as Soumya's bad form continues
The Dhaka Premier League has entered its middle stages with
the tables shaping up in a way that could decide the final league positions.
Three matches took place today—the usual—with the highest-scoring game being
the one between Shinepukur Cricket Club and Brothers Union.
Batting first, Shinepukur made a competitive total of 288
with the help of a valiant innings from captain Shuvagata Hom. Indeed, he made
116 runs from just 98 balls to push the score to near 300. Afif Hossain’s 68
from 77 balls and Minhaz Khan’s 24 from 21 balls were also a great support
innings for the captain.
For the bowlers, Suhrawadi Shuvo took three wickets while
Khaled Ahmed picked up two scalps. Mehedi Hasan Rana, Ifthekar Sajjad and
Shakawat Hossain got a wicket as well.
In response, Brothers Union batsmen batted extremely well as
a team to chase down the total with relative ease in the end. Mizanur Rahman,
Junaid Siddique and Yasir Ali scored 37, 31 and 458, respectively, to support
the two main stars of the day: Debabrata Das and Myshukur Rahman.
Das scored 75 from 60 balls while Myshukur played a fantastic
innings of 88 from 107 balls to chase down the total within 49.1 overs and with
five wickets in hand.
Raihan Uddin took two wickets while Mohammed Saifuddin,
Sujan Hawladar and Afif Hossain took a wicket each, but couldn’t win the game
for their team.
Meanwhile in the other game between Khelaghar and Kalabagan
Krira Chakra, AL Menaria’s superb 95 helped his team, Khelaghar Samaj Kallyan
Samity, win the game by 15 runs. Batting first, Khelaghar posted a score of 238
with the help of Maneria’s innings and also Amit Majumder’s valuable support of 42
runs.
Rahatul Ferdous was the pick of the bowler with three
wickets and was helped by a brace from Muktar Ali and Nahid Hasan each. Abul Hasan
took a wicket too and bundled them up for under 250.
In response, a top-order collapse from Ashraful and co. set
Kalabagan back from the very beginning. They could never really recuperate from
it, despite some brave efforts from Taibur Rahman, Sanjib Saha and Abul Hasan,
who scored 81, 76 and 31 not-out respectively.
Their efforts went in vain as Kalabagan could conjure only 223
with the loss of 9 wickets after 50 overs.
Hasan Mahmud’s devastating bowling earned him three scalps.
He was well supported by Robiul Islam and Anjum Ahmed, who took two wickets
each, and Rafsan Al Mahmud and Masum Khan, who took a wicket each.
Finally, in the game between the two banks, Prime Bank
reigned supreme over Agrani Bank. Prime Bank batted first and put up a total of
272 with the loss of 8 wickets.
Initially, things didn’t go according to plan for Agrani
Bank as Mehedi Maruf and Mehrab Hossain Jnr got Prime Bank off to a great
start. Indeed, both of them scored half-centuries and put up 94 runs for the
opening partnership.
Mehedi Maruf was the first one to go after making 54 runs
from 66 balls. Mehrab Hossain soon departed after making 52 runs. Al-Amin got a
good start, but couldn’t convert it to big score as he got out for 25.
Zakir Hasan scored a duck while the rest of the middle order
got starts with Yusuf Pathan scoring 21, Ariful Haque making 39, Nahidul Islam
racing to 21 and Delwar Hossain playing a power-packed innings of 41 from 14
balls to take the score to 272/8 after 50 overs.
Shafiul Islam and Raza Ali Dhar took two wickets each while
Abdur Razzak and Azmir Ahmed got one scalp each.
When Agrani Bank came to bat, their top order—consisting of
Soumya Sarkar, Azmir Ahmed and Shahriar Nafees—bundled up very easily, which
set them back for the whole game. Middle-order contributions from Raza Ali Dar
and Dhiman Ghosh, who made 42 and 73, and lower-order help from Jahid Javed and
Mohammad Ishak, who scored 48 not-out and 34, respectively, weren’t enough to
take Agrani Bank home.
The Prime Bank bowlers kept on piling the pressure on Agrani
batters as Rubel Hossain and Delwar Hossain took three wickets each while
Shariful Islam scalped two Agrani batsmen himself. Monir Hossain and Yusuf
Pathan, too, grabbed a wicket each as Prime Bank won the game by 42 runs.
