Dhaka, fresh after their eight-wicket thrashing of Sylhet, dismissed their opponents for 225 before closing the opening day of their four-day game at 8-1. Young paceman Shahadat Hossain Rajib was the wrecker-in-chief with a five-wicket burst at the Dhanmondi Cricket Stadium.

Chittagong, who won their one-day fixture against Khulna by seven wickets, did even better in restricting Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar's side to 192 at the Chittagong Divisional Stadium. Left-arm spinner Ilyias Sunny did the damage with a five-wicket haul despite Bashar hit a blazing 74-ball 68. The home side had reached 120-1 at the close.

Barisal also suffered a batting collapse against hosts Rajshahi, who scored an eight-wicket success against the tourists in the 50-over match on Saturday. Barisal finished the day on 181-7 in 66 overs at the Rajshahi Divisional Stadium. The match got off to a delayed start due to early morning fog.

DHAKA-SYLHET
Sylhet captain Rajin Saleh dug deep with 68 but it was not enough for his side to put up a decent total as wickets fell at the other end at regular intervals.

Dhaka's lanky paceman Shahadat gave the first breakthrough, sending back Imtiaz Hossain for a duck while his new-ball partner Anwar Hossain Munir dismissed out-of-favour international Alok Kapali for 15.

Rajin then joined opener Moniruzzaman to repair the early damage, producing 60 run for the third wicket. Moniruzzaman made 39 off 76 balls before skipper Mohammad Ashraful's leg-spin had him caught by Talha with the scoreboard reading 82-3.

Sylhet were desperately in need of a big partnership but Rajin apart nobody showed the application in the middle. Golam Mabud (22), Ijaz Ahmed (21) and Rezaul Haque (17) got off to reasonable starts but could not carry on.

After staying at the wicket for more than four hours Rajin also departed playing a rash shot. He unnecessarily flashed at a rising delivery of Shahadat, but was caught at deep third man by Mohammad Rafique. In his 172-ball laborious innings the right-hander hammered nine boundaries.

Shahadat, who bowled with a five-men slip cordon most of the time, returned with 5-63 in 18 overs while Ashraful's leg spin fetched him two wickets for 16 runs in 11 overs. Former Bangladesh captain Khaled Mahmud playing 'on request of the team management' took one wicket. Mahmud had earlier decided not to feature in the first-class competition.

CHITTAGONG-KHULNA
Nafees Iqbal and Aftab Ahmed completed a satisfying day for Chittagong after Ilyias Sunny had caught Khulna in a spinning web.

Nafees was batting on 63 while his national team partner Aftab scored 47 not out as Chittagong raced to 120-1 in reply to Khulna's 192. Masumuddowla was the lone batsman out for the home side after scoring 25.

Earlier, Khulna captain Bashar fought a lone battle after winning a good toss in the morning. Bashar, who missed the one-day game due to injury, clobbered nine boundaries in his fluent knock. But the rest including Tushar Imran, who scored fifties in the Corporate Cricket League final and their one-day fixture, failed miserably.

Pacer Wasqarani Palash did the early damage picking up three wickets for 49 while Sunny ripped through the lower half to finish with 5-46 in 12.1 overs.

RAJSHAHI-BARISAL
Mohammad Shahajada and Sumon Shaha picked up two wickets each as Barisal crawled to 181-7 after Rajshahi sent them to bat on a damp wicket.

National opener Shahriar Nafees, who is leading Barisal, scored only three on his National League debut before being dismissed by Sumon.

Towhid Hossain was the top scorer for the visitors with 46 off 124 balls while opener Imran Ahmed hit a quick-fire 33 off 44 balls.

Ali Arman was batting on 22 and Arafat Salahuddin at 16.