Khulna emerged unbeaten champion in the eight-team four-day 17th National Cricket League (NCL), first class domestic cricket, after playing out a draw against Rangpur in the 6th round on day four at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong on Tuesday.
Khulna earned 54 points from 6th round of tier-1 with one win and five draws to be champion as well as to dethorn Rangpur, followed Dhaka Metro with 44 points from as many as matches also tasted one win and five draws.
Dhaka Division finished third in the tier-1 bagging 43 points with one win, one loss and four draws.
Bottom ranked Rangpur releget to tier-2 while Barisal advanced to tier-1 for the next edition as Barisal secured top slot of the tier-1 bagging 59 points from 6th round games two win and four draws.
In the remaining tier-2 teams, Rajshahi placed 2nd securing 54 points with 2 wins, one loss and three draws while Sylhet finished 3rd collecting 38 points with one win, two losses and three draws. Chittagong took bottom place securing 35 points with two losses and four draws.
In the 6th round tier-1 match, Khulna played draw against Rangpur on day-four at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong on Tuesday.
Dhaka Metro drew against Dhaka Division at Sheikh Kamal International Cricket Stadium in Cox’s Bazar in the other tier-1 match also on day four.
Barisal played draw against Chittagong in their tier-2 match at Shaheed Chandu Stadium in Bogra.
Earlier on Monday, Rajshahi outplayed Sylhet by 10 wickets on third day in the other tier-2 match at Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium in Khulna.
Khulna vs Rangpur
On day four, Rangpur resumed the first innings with overnight score of 324 for 7 in 104.3 overs and finished the innings at 344 in 113.5 overs.
Bishawnath Halder (not out 11) was the only double figure scorer on the day.
Veteran spinner Abdur Razzak pulled five wickets for 127 runs in the first innings while Murad Khan bagged four wickets for 66 runs.
Khulna opened the first innings and played a 70 overs innings to score 286 for 7 wickets involving a century by Imrul Kayes.
Kayes faced 104 balls for a century of 107 runs featuring 13 boundaries and 3 sixes.
Ziaur Rahman scored unbeaten 62 off 82 balls with seven fours and two sixes while Abu Bakkar (32), Enamul Haque (27) and Mahedi Hasan (21) were the other considerable scorers for Khulna.
Tanveer Haider took two wickets for 56 runs while Saddam Hossain, Nahidul Islam, Bishawnath Halder and Suhrawadi Shuvo took one wicket each for the side.
Dhaka Metro vs Dhaka Division
Winning the toss Dhaka Metro elected to bat first and scored 286 runs for 3 in 75 overs century by opener Shamsur Rahman.
Apart from century Shamsur Rahman paired with Mehedi Maruf for a 209 runs in 57.3 overs in the 2nd wicket stand.
Shamsur Rahman’s century of 105 runs off 182 balls featured eight fours and one six.
Mehedi Maruf scored 99 runs off 179 balls with nine fours and three sixes before retired hurt.
Mehrab Hossain (Jnr) smeshed not out 52 of 47 balls with six fours and tow sixes.
Mahbubul Alam, Mohammad Sharif and Nazmul Islam took one wicket ach for Dhaka Division.
Barisal vs Chittagong
Chittagong resumed the first innings with overnight score of 423/8 in 120 overs and finished at 425 in 123 overs.
Overnight batsman Iftekhar Sajjad scored 30 runs adding 2 more runs with his previous score while another overnight Nabil Samad (4) out without adding any more runs on day four.
Sohag Gazi captured five wickets for 134 runs while Monir Hossain took three wickets for 56 runs.
Having 489 runs in the first innings, Barisal opened the 2nd innings on day four and scored 303/6 in 70 overs with opener Shahriar Nafees unbeaten century.
Besides his century, Nafees pairing with Al-Amin contributed 122 runs in 28 overs in the 4th wicket stand.
Nafees hit unbeaten century of 174 runs off 209 balls featuring 21 fours and two sixes.
Al-Amin scored 68 runs off 86 balls with 10 fours while Salman Hossain and Sohag Gazi added 28 and 17 runs respectively.
