The pulsating match between Victoria Sporting Club and Legends of Rupganj at BKSP on Sunday saw a century, a five-wicket haul and a match-saving 88-run innings, but a hit of six in the last ball overshadowed them all. Rupganj’s Taijul Islam struck the six against Kamrul Islam in the last ball of the innings to finish the match in tie as they reached 314-9 in reply of Victoria’s 314-9 in the high-scoring encounter.
Requiring 13 runs from the last over and the last pair in the wicket, Rabbi started with a dot ball before he gave a wide and Hider’s single in the next ball provided the strike to Taijul, who scored two runs in the next ball.
Taijul (17) and Hider (8), who added 24 runs off 16 balls in the unbeaten last wicket stand, took two more singles in the next two balls before Taijul struck the final blow to salvage his side.
‘I had the confidence to hit him for a six,’ Taijil later told New Age.
At that time we had no other options but to go after him and as the ball was coming into the bat my confidence was raised. I chose to hit him straight over his head.’
The salvation process was orchestrated by their captain Mosharraf Hossain, who made 88 runs of 96 balls, to lift his side from a precarious 6-127.
Skipper started to hit back and made a 109-run stand off just 97 balls in the seventh wicket with Nahidul Islam, who scored 57 runs off 52 balls.
Mosharraf’s fight continued and he got good support from Alauddin Babu (22) as the pair added 49 runs off 43 balls in the eighth wicket partnership.
Mosharraf finally got out as the ninth batsman but his last two batsmen completed his unbelievable mission of salvaging the side.
Earlier in the day, man of the match Al Amin scored his first List ‘A’ century to help his side post a big total on the board.
The 22-year old batsman scored 102 runs off 113 balls with 11 boundaries and a six.
Al Amin made a partnership of 129 runs with opener Fazle Mahmud, who scored 73 runs, and later added 82 runs with Chaturanga de Silva (44).
Hider, who was impressive in the Bangladesh Premier League, produced his best bowling figure
in a List ‘A’ match with 5-52, his first ever five-wicket haul and his opening bowling partner Babu claimed 3-76.
Brief Scores
Victoria 314-9 in 50 overs (Al Amin 102, Fazle Mahmud 73 ; Hider 5-52,Alauddin Babu 3-76) v Rupganj 314-9 in 50 overs (Mosharraf 88, Nahidul 57; Enamul 3-52)
Result: Match tied
Player of the match: Al Amin (Victoria)
-With New Age input
