Mushfiqur Rahim, Hasan Mahmud, Sheikh Mehdi Hassan came down to play National League matches after the World Cup failure. Got a chance to play one match. Mushfiqur of Rajshahi could not do much with the bat. However Hasan Mahmud of Chittagong took 5 (3+2) wickets. Khulna’s off-spinner Sheikh Mehdi Hasan showed his best with 12 wickets for 72 runs. Yesterday, he crushed Barisal’s second innings for just 46 runs with 8 wickets for just 10 runs.
Khulna was behind by 25 runs in the first innings at home. On Sunday, Mehdi collapsed with 4 wickets in Barisal’s second innings (42/6). Mehdi bowled 4 wickets in 4.3 overs on Monday morning and wrapped up the guests. He took 8 wickets for just 10 runs in 11.3 overs bowling. This is the best bowling by a right-handed bowler in first-class cricket in Bangladesh. Sanjamul Islam’s 9/80 is the best. Apart from this, Abdur Razzak, Saqlain Sajib and late Mosharraf Hossain also have the feat of 9 wickets in the innings. But all three of them are left-arm spinners. And 12/72 in the fifth match was Mehdi’s first-class career best bowling. He had taken 10 wickets in a match before in a career of 123 wickets.
Barisal’s 46 is the lowest team collection in the history of the National Cricket League. Earlier in 2014, Dhaka Metro was all out by 48 runs against Rangpur. Apart from this, Barisal scored 54 runs against Chittagong in this match.
Hasan Murad, who was called up to the national team, won the second tier champion by defeating Rajshahi by 10 wickets at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong with 5 wickets. In this year’s national league, they won 5 out of 6 matches in the second tier and collected 43 points. Chittagong division will play in the first level in the next season.
Khulna won the toss and sent Barisal to bat at the Sheikh Abu Nasser Stadium at home. They collected 239 runs in the first innings. In response, Khulna’s innings ended with 214 runs. With a lead of 25 runs, Barisal’s batsmen were attacked by Sheikh Mehdi’s whirlwind in the second innings. Barisal was bowled out for 46 runs in just 22.3 overs. Mehdi took 8 wickets at the cost of 10 runs in 7 maidens by bowling 11.3 overs. Khulna won by losing 1 wicket with a target of 72 runs. Khulna has to remain in the second level with 34 points despite winning the last round match.
This time Dhaka division won the national league title with one match in hand. Their match against Metro in the last round at Cox’s Bazar is heading for a draw. Rangpur needed 277 runs to win on the last day in the other first-tier match. Sylhet collected 442 runs in the second innings thanks to Shamsur Rahman’s 128 runs in Bogra. With a target of 387 runs, Rangpur’s collection at the end of the day was 110 runs for 4 wickets.
