Rajin Saleh’s dashing unbeaten half century steered Surja Tarun to an effortless seven-wicket win against Prime Doleshwar in the Dhaka Premier League in Rajshahi on Tuesday.
CCS, riding on Mahmudaul Hasan’s half century won by 33 runs against Kalabagan KC in BKSP and in the other match of the day, Victoria won by four wickets against the newcomers Orient SC in a low scoring match in Bogra.
Surja Tarun v Prime Doleshwar
Sent in to bat first, Prime found it difficult to score against the controlled bowling of the two opening bowlers of Surja Tarun. Prime lost three quick wickets for a meagre 24 runs before a 65-run partnership between Nadif Chowdhury (45 off 64 balls) and Imran Ahmed (38 off 80 balls) for the fifth wicket helped them reach 198 runs.
Mohammad Rezwan bagged four wickets conceding only 44 runs after opening bowlers of Surja Tarun, Ali Zahid and Shafaq al Zabir made some early inroads to finish with 2-15 and 1-21 respectively.
Surja Tarun chased their scanty target down easily thanks to the unbeaten 85 off 98 balls by Rajin, who was aided by Junaed Siddique. Junaed shrugged off his ankle injury that he suffered in the previous game, making 59 off 76 balls.
Kalabagan v CCS
Saikat Ali’s dazzling 77 runs off 75 balls with eight boundaries and an over boundary helped CCS post a mammoth 274 runs. Taposh Ghosh chipped in with a half century (51 off 88 balls) and Mohammad Ashraful smashed 43 off 42 balls, after opting to bat first.
Shahadat Hossain took three wickets for 49 runs while Arafat Sunny and Nazmus Sadat claimed two wickets each for 43 and 50 runs respectively.
Bishwanath grabbed 4-52 as CCS restricted their next-door neighbour Kalabagan to 241 in 49.1 overs.
Mahmudul Hasan (80 off 97 balls) and national cricketer Roqibul Hassan (41 off 66 balls) tried to guide their side to victory but the lack of support by the other batsmen made that task impossible. Six other batsmen reached the double figures but failed to convert it to a big score.
Victoria v Orient
Monir Hossain and Kamrul Islam took seven wickets between them to help Victoria restrict Orient to a low score of 92 before amble past the target in little over 30 overs with four wickets in hand.
Monir bagged four wickets for 27 runs while Kamrul Islam chipped in with 3-48.
