In an absolutely mammoth effort at the Chittagong Divisional Stadium, Ashraful struck 263, breaking the record of national captain Habibul Bashar's 224 against Khulna in 2000-01. He also shared 420 runs for the fifth-wicket with Marshall Ayub, who scored 145.

The Dhaka pair was only 44 runs short of the world first-class record of 464 runs for the fifth wicket set between Australia's famous Waugh brothers Steve and Mark for New South Wales in 1991, when Ashraful edged to wicketkeeper Dhiman Ghosh off left-arm spinner Elias Sunny.

The man who holds the record of being the youngest Test centurion, struck the seventh double century for the country in fist-class cricket. His sublime 158 against India back in 2004 was his previous highest score in the longer version game.

The 22-year-old was understandably delighted with his record-breaking stand.

"I really enjoyed the partnership with Marshall (Ayub), and he's such a good batsman but I was completely unaware of the world record," said Ashraful.

"My determination was to score runs as I said before so it was quite satisfying to hit 263.

"I did think about the triple-hundred but maybe that wasn't in my fate," said Ashraful, who was dropped from the national team for the Zimbabwe one-day series. "I think I deserve a recall to the national team."

Appreciating his knock, chief selector Faruque Ahmed said: "It is fantastic that he scored two brilliant knocks in succession. We never had a doubt about his talent but his exclusion was based on performance. He must have regained a lot of confidence by scoring so heavily."

Queried about a change of heart in terms of reversing their earlier decision, Faruque said, "It is too early to reconsider our previous stand."

It was however that Faruque might sit again with his fellow selectors to re-assess their previous stand before the first one-day international against Zimbabwe on November 30.

Chittagong V Dhaka
Resuming on overnight 332-4, Ashraful and Ayub continued on their merry way, taking the hapless Chittagong bowling to the cleaners. Ayub, who earned a place in the Board President's Eleven in a warm-up game against Zimbabwe through his sterling performances in the season so far, batted with aplomb but was more subdued than his celebrated partner.

Ashraful reached his maiden double hundred in the first hour of the day and in a bid to put the game completely out of the hosts' grasp, he went on to add ten boundaries and a six to the 21 he had hit on the second day.

But trying to play the ball on the off-side, Ashraful was caught behind, having faced 329 balls in just a minute short of seven hours.

He was quite quickly followed by Ayub whose 145 came off 295 balls with help of eleven fours and two sixes.

Nadif Chowdhury struck ten fours and a couple of sixes in his 83-ball 64 which gave Dhaka a massive 570-run total in their first innings.

Chittagong, trailing by 332 runs, lost five wickets to score 105 at stumps.

Barisal V Khulna
Khulna were bowled out for 215 when they continued at the Dhanmondi Cricket Stadium, trailing by 71 runs. Mohammad Salim, overnight 34, added four runs more.

Hannan Sarkar (74) and Ali Arman Rajan (75) were the impetus behind Barisal's second innings effort as they helped reach the southern division 208-six. Left-arm spinner Manzarul Islam took two wickets for Khulna.

Rajshahi V Sylhet
Sylhet, behind by 147 runs and placed precariously at 6 for two overnight at the Rajshahi Divisional Stadium, had Golam Mabud to thank as the young wicket-keeper batsman struck 123 off 252 balls, hitting twelve boundaries.

With Tapash Baisya, who struck 70 coming in at number eight, Mabud shared 139 runs for the seventh in their second innings total of 277.

Rajshahi, chasing a modest 130 to win, were 1 for no loss.