The title race of the Dhaka Premier League was thrown wide open after Legends of Rupganj and Prime Doleshwar beat two frontrunners Abahani Limited and Prime Bank Cricket Club respectively on the second round Super League matches on Saturday.
Kalabagan Cricket Academy also returned to winning ways after three consecutive losses when they handed Mohammedan Sporting Club a 63-run defeat in the other match.
Jahirul Islam hit 93 to set up an easy 76-run win for Legends against Abahani while Doleshwar banked on Delwar Hossain’s 5-26 to ease into seven-wicket win over Prime Bank.
Doleshwar, who secured their ninth win in the campaign, now trail Abahani and Prime by two points. Legends and KCA also remained within the touching distance with 16 points each, four shy of two league leaders.
Abahani Limited v Legends of Rupganj
Legends had to win the match in order to stay alive in the race and Jahirul’s first fifty in five matches gave them a perfect boost leading the side to 221-9 in the 40-over-a-side contest.
Junaid Siddique provided Jahirul, who struck three fours and four sixes in his 108-ball innings, a valuable support with 42 off 49 balls.
Shubhashis Roy picked up 4-42 for Abahani while his new ball partner Mustafizur Rahman also grabbed 3-51 to keep Legends batsmen somewhat in check.
But Sakib al Hasan, who opened the bowling to claim 3-42 and his fellow bowlers proved their innings was more than enough.
Rubel Hossain also grabbed 3-29 as Abahani were all out for 145-9 in 34.4 overs to suffer their first defeat after eight successive wins.
Abahani’s previous defeat also came against the same side at the same venue.
Prime Bank CC v Prime Doleshwar SC
Pace bowler Delwar Hossain grabbed his maiden five-wicket to add to his 4-41 in the previous match and left-arm spinner Elias Sunny chipped in with 3-34 as Prime Doleshwar dismissed high-flying Prime Bank for 153 runs in 35.4 overs in 38-over-a-side contest at the Sher-e-Bangla.
In form Rony Talukdar, who smashed two centuries in the previous two matches, made it look easy scoring a fluent fifty, 77 off 60 balls, as Doleshwar reached 154-3 with nearly 10 overs to spare.
Rony hit seven fours and four sixes in his innings which helped him overtake Abahani’s Liton Das as league top scorer. He has now 599 runs to his name, 10 more than Liton’s 589.
Mohammedan SC v Kalabagan CA
Imtiaz Ahmed made 56 off 46 balls and Mehedi Hasan Miraz hit 41 off 62 as Kalabagan Cricket Academy post 200 before they were all out in the 45-over game.
Rahatul (3-35) and Naeem (3-30), led the bowling for Mohammedan, who saw skipper Mashrafee bin Muratza play the game but did not bowl as precaution to injury.
Mahamudul Hasan and Nabil Samad later put Mohammedan in a spin to dismiss them for 137 runs in 41.2 overs helping KCA post their first win in four matches.
Samad finished with 4-10 while Mahamudul returned with 3-21.
Naeem’s 56 runs, his seventh fifty in the league, however, was not enough for his side to prevent the defeat.
-With New Age input
