Contrasting wins for Abahani and MSC
Rony Talukder scored the second century of the season to give defending champions Abahani a 104-run victory over Victoria in their clash of the Premier Division Cricket League at the Shaheed Chandu Stadium in Bogra yesterday.
Rony found his more illustrious opening partner Imrul Kayes leave without scoring, and then saw the next two follow soon as Abahani were reduced to 38 for 3 in thirteen overs. But he held firm at one end and found good company in Nasir Hossain at No. 5, who played a 62-run knock to take the side towards a big score. Rony's vigil ended in the 43rd over after the innings had already crossed the 200-run mark and his side well placed. Rony played with patience and knocked the ball all around the park as he hit only ten boundaries and a single six in his 117-ball 101. Abahani posted 252 in the end losing eight wickets.
The target was a bit too much for Victoria and they crumbled under the pressure losing wickets right from the word go. An inspiring spell from paceman Shuvashish Roy, who returned figures of 4 for 16, reduced Victoria to 27 for five only in the 11th over. Victoria were out of the running by then and latter batsmen, despite their best efforts, couldn't avoid a huge margin defeat.
As Abahani won easily, their biggest rivals Mohammedan survived a massive scare to be home in the end with a 2-run victory over Old DOHS at BKSP.
Mohammedan had a few useful contributions, with highest 47 coming off the bat of all-rounder Marshal Ayub, while Aftab Ahmed and Faisal Hossain scored 31 runs each. But the latter batsmen failed badly to collapse for 188 runs, giving the opponents an opportunity to cause a probable upset. And Old DOHS looked on course for it throughout the match as their upper-order batsmen contributed with useful runs.
Mohammedan's Sri Lankan all-rounder Farveez Maharoof took four wickets to keep the giants in the game. But it was down to a few unnecessary run-outs, rather than any miraculous bowling effort, that saw Old DOHS get bowled out to fall short by two runs, thwarting their hopes of a memorable upset.
In the other match of the day, Surjo Torun rode on a fine 71-run unbeaten knock from their skipper Habibul Bashar to run comfortably home against BKSP by five wickets at Fatullah. It was however thanks to an invigorating spell from paceman Mahbubul Alam who caused most of the damages to restrict BKSP for a modest 182 for 7 in their 50-over innings. Mahbubul took four wickets for 36. The only batsman who stood out was Tanveer Haider at the middle-order who scored match's best 78 off 118 deliveries.
Chasing this seemingly easy target, Surjo Torun found themselves on the wrong foot as they lost four quick wickets to Mubaraj Islam, but Bashar came in and eased the tension in the Surjo Torun camp with his assuring batting. He found suitable company in Anisur Rahman (53 not out), and the two guided them to a comfortable victory with 11 overs of the innings unused.
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