The Islami Bank East Zone were trailing by 163 runs against BCB North Zone after the first day of the four-day 2nd round match of the 6th Bangladesh Cricket League (BCL) at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium on Monday.
BCB North Zone, which made a flying start crushing Walton Central Zone by nine wickets in the first round last week, sent in to bat first in the 2nd round match and were bundled out cheaply for 187 runs in 49.5 overs in the first innings despite a 60-run partnership in the 2nd wicket by Farhad Hossain and Naeem Islam.
After the dismissal of openers Mizanur Rahman (4) and Nazmul Hossain (23) for 39 runs in 10.5 overs, one down Farhad Hossain pairing with number four Naeem Islam contributed 60 runs in the 2nd wickets to carry the team total to 99 runs from 39.
Farhad Hossain contributed 40 runs off 68 balls featuring four boundaries while Naeem Islam scored 51-ball 22 runs hitting three fours.
Besides, wicketkeeper Dhiman Ghosh scored 49-ball 23 runs, last match centurion Jahurul Islam made 15 runs off 17 balls with two fours while tail-ender Taijul Islam added 11-ball 14 runs with the help of three fours.
Abu Jayed made the major damage to the BCB North Zone innings grabbing five wickets for 71 runs while Syed Khaled claimed three wickets for 36 runs.
Replying to a poor first innings total, Islami Bank East Zone opened the first innings and lost top four wickets for just 24 runs in 14 overs with last match centurion Zakir Hasan and Yasir Ali batting on 2 and zero after the departure of last match double centurion Mominul Haque for a duck, Liton Kumar (3), Imtiaz Hossain (3) and former national skipper Mohammad Ashraful 6).
Farhad Reza and National coloured pacer Shafiul Islam bagged two wickets each conceding 8 and 11 runs respectively.
Sent in to bat first in the day’s other 2nd round match at Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishtan Ground-4 in Savar, Prime Bank South Zone scored 108 runs for 2 in 33 overs in the first innings on the first day against Walton Central Zone in the match which saw a delayed start at 2:45 pm due to dense fog and was called off at 4:55pm for bad light.
In the first day’s short-lived innings, former national cricketer Tushar Imran of Prime Bank South Zone reached the landmark of scoring 10,000 runs in the first class cricket as the first Bangladeshi cricketer contributing unbeaten 40 runs off 72 deliveries featuring seven fours on Monday to raise his individual tally to 10,005 runs from 154 matches.
National coloured opener Shahriar Nafees of Prime Bank was in batting with 53 runs off 110 balls featuring 10 fours and one six after the dismissal of national opener Soumya Sarker (10) and Mehedi Hasan (1).
Abu Hider and Ebadat Hossain took one wicket apiece conceding 28 and 30 runs respectively.
