Defending Champion Rangpur in the National League concluded their journey with defeat as Sylhet defeated Rangpur by a huge margin of 201 runs at the ShahidChandu Stadium in Bogura on Tuesday. Left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed led the great victory of Sylhet, who were bowled out for 125 runs in the first innings. He took six wickets in the second innings.
Batting a target of 387 runs, Rangpur needed 277 runs with six wickets to spare to win on the final day. However, no pair of Rangpur could stand in Nasum Ahmed's whirlwind. In the seventh over of the day, Nasum got the first breakthrough by trapping Mahmudul Hasan with LBW. At the other end, TanveerHyder tried to play fast and was bowled by Rezaur Rahman, scoring 40 runs off 51 balls.
ArifulHaque, Naveen Islam, and NihadUzzaman are three victims of Nasum. After scoring 38 runs, Rangpur lost the last 5 wickets and collapsed to 185 runs; they could not bat even a single session on the last day. Akbar Ali's team finished the league at the bottom of the points table. Nasum ended his bowling with six wickets for 33 runs, making it the ninth time in his first-class career that the left-arm spinner took five or more wickets in an innings. In this match, however, he had a great time batting; after scoring 32 runs unbeaten in the first innings, he scored 71 runs in four in the second innings.
The other match between Dhaka and Dhaka Metropolis in the first tier at Cox's Bazar was expected to be a draw. On the first two days, not even one ball was bowled due to rain and a wet outfield. Finally, Mahanagar, who scored 77 runs for 2 wickets by batting 17 overs on Monday, declared the first innings by scoring 180 runs for 3 wickets. Opener Mohammad Naeem scored 63 runs from 58 balls.
In response, Dhaka played in an ODI style; after 3 wickets fell for 56 runs, Mahidul Islam played an innings of 100 runs from 112 balls. He hit five fours and a six in the innings. Dhaka announced the innings with 236 runs for 5 wickets, and Mahanagar batted 1 over in the second innings.
