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.
Shinepukur now have to chase 233 runs to win.