Shahriar Nafees continued his good form with a century for Barisal in their last National Cricket League game against Sylhet at the Shaheed Kamruzzaman Stadium in Rajshahi yesterday.
It was a captain’s knock from the left-hander as his side crumbled in front of Alok Kapali’s leg-spin to be bowled out for 257, Sylhet replying with six for no loss at stumps.
At the Shaheed Chandu Stadium in Bogra, Dhaka made 217-6 in their first innings against Rajshahi.
BARISAL-SYLHET
Nafees, who showed great form with the bat against Australia recently, hit fourteen fours and one six in his innings of 226 balls.
Put into bat by Sylhet skipper Kapali, Barisal were in trouble when Fakhrul Islam struck twice to remove both openers.
Nafees’s younger brother Iftekhar Nayeem, who hit an impressive century in the last match, came in at No 4 and the brothers shared a partnership of 103 runs.
Nayeem got out on 46 after hitting six boundaries and a six in his 96-ball knock.
Sohag Gazi was the only other batsman who made a notable contribution with his 47, hitting eight boundaries off 85 balls but it was the Sylhet captain who did a fine job with the ball.
Kapali picked up five wickets giving away just 45 runs from his 19 overs. Left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed also took two wickets as did paceman Fakhrul.
Apart from Nafees, Nayeem and Gazi, none of the other Barisal batsmen made a decent score with last match’s centurion Shahin Hossain getting out after a painstaking 17.
Sylhet batted three overs before the end of the day’s play and scored six runs with both openers unbeaten at the crease.
RAJSHAHI-DHAKA
Dhaka, led by Mosharraf Hossain Rubel, decided to bat first and finished the day on 217 for six.
Rubel once again showed his batting quality scoring 69 of 212 balls with nine fours after the top-order fell off for just 21 runs in the 15th over.
The tall left-handed all-rounder added 75 for the fourth wicket with Mehrab Hossain to consolidate the Dhaka innings but the latter fell for 42. But Rubel kept up the partnerships going as he added a further 81 for the fifth wicket with Tayebur Rahman, who made 36.
Asif Iqbal and wicketkeeper Arman Hossain were unbeaten on 21 and 18 respectively.
For Rajshahi, pacemen Delwar Hossain and Mohammad Shahjada took two wickets each.
BRIEF SCORES
BARISAL: First innings 257 all out (Nafees 123, Gazi 47; Alok 5-45, Fakhrul 2-43).
SYLHET: First innings 6-0 (Saikat 5 not out, Imtiaz 1 not out).
DHAKA: First innings 217-6 (Mosharraf 69, Mehrab 42; Shahjada 2-23, Delwar 2-33).
Courtesy of The Daily Star
