Holders Prime Bank South Zone were trailing by 272 runs with nine wickets in hand against BCB North Zone on the first day of the four-day title-deciding 6th and final round match of the 7th Bangladesh Cricket League (BCL), reports UNB.
The match was held at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in the port city of Chattogram on Monday.
In reply to BCB North Zone's 293 for all, they scored 21 runs for one in six overs before the bails were drawn for the day.
BCB North Zone batted first after winning the toss and were all out for 293 runs in 83.4 overs in the first innings featuring 135 runs in the 7th wicket stand by Ariful Haque and all-rounder Ziaur Rahman although they lost six wickets for 135 runs in 41.2 overs.
Ariful Haque, who came to bat in number six, fell victim of nervous nineties as he scored 98 runs off 151 balls, including six boundaries, before being trapped lbw by spinner Abdur Razzak. Lower order Ziaur Rahman contributed 103-ball 69 runs hitting seven fours and two sixes.
Besides, national opener Zonaid Siddique (44), opener Mizanur Rahman (29) and one down Farhad Hossain (24) were the other main scorers for BCB North Zone.
Abdur Razzak made the major damage in BCB North Zone innings claiming seven wickets for 78 runs.
Nahidul Islam, Mahedi Hasan and Shafiul Islam took one wicket each conceding 35, 47 and 73 runs respectively.
In reply, defending champions Prime Bank South Zone scored 21 for 1 with national opener Anamul Haque and one down Fazle Mahmud in batting with 7 and 8 runs respectively after the departure of Shahriar Nafees making one run.
In the other match at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium, Islami Bank East Zone scored 380 for 8 in 82.1 overs in the first innings featuring two good partnerships against league leader Walton Central Zone on the first day.
Captain Mominul Haque pairing with national opener Imrul Kayes contributed 135 runs in 24.2 overs in the 2nd wicket stand.
Mahmudul Hasan partnering with Zakir Hasan added exactly 100 runs in the 6th wicket stand.
Top order national batsman Mominul Haque hammered 95-ball 82 runs, including nine boundaries, opener Imrul Kayes scored 79-ball 78 runs hitting 12 boundaries, number six Mahmudul Hasan made 107-ball 74 runs with nine hits across the rope and number seven Zakir Hasan scored 77-ball 57 runs, also with nine fours.
Besides, two down Yasir Ali scored 66-ball 39 runs with four fours and lower order Taijul Islam made 42-ball 32 runs with five hits to the fence.
National pacer Abu Hider Rony, Taskin Ahmed, Mosharraf Hossain and Mosaddek Hossain took two wickets each giving away 78, 69, 84 and 84 runs respectively.
After the 5th round matches, all the four teams have fair chances to be the champions as they have poor differences of only four points.
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