Mosaddek Hossain struck a last ball boundary following a six off the previous ball for Abahani Limited to seal a cliffhanger against Prime Doleshwar in their Dhaka Premier League match at the BKSP on Saturday. In the rain-effected match, Doleshwar made 191-7 in 28 overs before Abahani reached 194-7 in the last ball of the 28 th over to seal a three-wicket win.Abahani needed 11 runs in the last over and Doleshwar skipper Farhad Reza started with a dot ball and gave just a single to Mosaddek in the second delivery.
Farhad made it tougher by getting out Mohammad Shahzada in the next ball but before wicketkeeper Rony Talukder took the catch, the batsmen could somehow rotate the strike.
That allowed Mosaddek to get on strike and he scored two runs in the next ball before finishing the match in the most thrilling fashion with two lusty shots.
Although a mild controversy aroused as many viewers believed that Taksin was run out en route to pick is second run in the fourth ball of the over but the umpires gave him a reprieve.
Mosaddek also was adjudged man-of-the-match for his 57 runs off just 35 balls that contained seven boundaries and two sixes.
Mosaddek said that he was happy to win the game for Abahani and more so after his plan to misguide Farhad Reza eventually worked out.
Mossadek opened his helmet in the last over and it seemed he was spot on with the decision as it played dividend.
‘I thought that if I don’t use the helmet he might be tempted to bowl short ball in the last over,’ said Mopssadek.
‘If he had bowled Yorker it would be difficult for me,’ he added.
Abahani, who were desperate to win the match to keep their super-league hopes alive, lost both their openers Tamim Iqbal (10) and Liton Das (11) within 25 runs but their national team-mate Sakib al Hasan made a 74-run partnership with Nazmul Hossain Shanto (39) to keep the chase alive.
Sakib, who made his first appearance in the league after completing his Indian Premier League duties, made 45 runs off 40 balls and also picked up 1-31 off six overs while bowling.
Sakib was stumped by Rony off Ashok Menaria in the last ball of the 19th over but Mosaddek almost single-handedly guided his side home from that situation, when they needed 73 runs off nine overs.
Earlier in the morning, Abahani’s Taskin Ahmed dismissed the opponents’ opener in the very first ball for the second consecutive match as he got rid of Doleshwar’s in-form opener Imtiaz Ahmed caught behind.
Abahani spinners Saqlain Sajib, Sakib and Mosaddek got three more wickets within 11 overs to reduce Doleshwar to 58-4 before Nasir Hossain and Sunzamul Islam added 82 in the fifth wicket stand.
Nasir, who has been in and out of the national side recently, made 72, the highest innings of the match off just 56 balls and Sunzamul scored 40 before he was run out that broke their partnership.
Ziaur Rahman gave some late impetus in the innings with 18 off 11 to give his side a healthy score though that ultimately proved inadequate.
With the win, Abahani moved their position to fourth in the points table with 11 points from nine matches to keep their super-league contention strong and Doleshwar remained second with 12 points from the same number of matches.
-With New Age input
