Abahani lose in a nail-biting encounter
The 9th round of the Dhaka Premier League has commenced with six teams participating across three games. At Fatullah, Mohammedan Sporting Club won the toss and elected to bat first. It turned to be a great decision as they scored 306 runs in 50 overs.
In what was a brilliant team effort from the Mohammedan batters as no less than four players scored more than 50 runs. Rony Talukdar made 77, Shamsur Rahman got to 60, Raqibul Hasan reached 55 while Saeed Sarkar ended with an unbeaten 58 from 25 balls to take the final score to 306/6 after 50 overs.
Mohammad Saifuddin took three scalps with Abdul Gaffar and Raihan Uddin picking one wicket apiece.
In response, Shinepukur Cricket Club had no answer to the fury of Taijul Islam and Mohammad Azim as they fell short by 38 runs. None of the Shinepukur batters could play a big innings as only Shuvogata Hom and Mohammad Saifuddin could get a score of above 50.
Hom ended with 52 runs while Saifuddin scored 68. Taijul Islam got three wickets while Mohammad Azim got four scalps to finish Shinepukur for 268 after 48.1 overs.
Meanwhile, in the other game, Prime Bank Cricket Club, Yusuf Pathan starred in a game where the top order failed to deliver the goods despite getting good starts. Mehedi Maruf, Zakir Hasan, and Al-Amin scored 32, 44 and 37 runs respectively.
Yusuf Pathan, meanwhile, played a blazing knock of 72 from 60 balls to push the score over 250.
Nayeem Hasan was the pick of the bowlers for Gazi Group cricketers as he took four wickets with Tipu Sultan and Mominul Haque taking a wicket each.
It was, however, not enough of an effort from Pathan as Gazi Group won with relative ease. Jahurul Islam scored a scintillating 103 from 113 balls before leaving the pitch retired hurt. Asif Ahmed did the rest of the job as he reached 91* from 105 balls to finish the game for his team with 7 wickets and 7 balls in hand.
Emanul Haque Jnr and Nahidul Islam got two and one wicket respectively as they were helpless in stopping the Gazi Group win.
Finally, in what was the best game of the day, there was a nail-biting encounter between Abahani Limited and Prime Doleshwar. The star team of the tournament, Abahani Limited, bundled Prime Doleshwar for under 250. Fazle Mahmud and Farhad Hossain scored 68 and 63 respectively, but the rest of the batters didn’t have an answer for Abahani’s bowling.
Manan Sharma picked four scalps while Ariful Islam and Mashrafe Mortaza took two wickets each. Sandip Roy picked up one scalp to halt Doleshwar at 232/9 after 50 overs.
In response, Anamul Haque Bijoy started well but got out for 34. Nasir Hossain scored 53 while Mohammad Mithun reached 60 runs, but couldn’t inspire their team to a victory as they fell short by just three runs.
Farhad Reza and Arafat Sunny were the stars for Doleshwar as they took three wickets each with Sharifullah taking two scalps and Zohaib Khan picking one wicket to give their team a crunching win in the end.
