Pacers exploit green top; South recover slowly

North Zone pacer Ebadat Hossain has made headlines once again by registering his maiden first-class 10-wicket match haul against Central Zone in their Bangladesh Cricket League second round encounter at the Shaheed Chandu Stadium in Bogura yesterday.

The pacer picked up four wickets for 88 runs in the second innings to reach the milestone, which eclipsed his previous best of five for 133, on the third day of the four-day match.

Another one of North's pacers, Mohor Sheikh, also made use of the green-top, registering his second ever first-class five wicket haul.

After resuming the day on 50 for three, Central were bundled out on 318 runs in 89.4 overs with Mohor and Ebadat claiming all seven of the wickets that fell on the day.

Central's Mosaddek Hossain became the only centurion of the match so far by striking a 160-ball 104-run knock before being bowled by Ebadat.

In chase of 284 -- a tough task given the type of wicket -- North ended the day on seven runs for one wicket, meaning that they need another 277 runs to win on the final day.

At the Shaheed Kamruzzaman Stadium in Rajshahi, a batting collapse saw South Zone bundled out on 258 before being forced to follow-on against East Zone. Mahedi Hasan's 86-run knock and Rakibul Hasan's 66 runs off 153 balls were the only two noteworthy efforts for South.

Following-on, South did not repeat their mistakes, ending the day with 135 runs on the board for no loss of wickets. Openers Anamul Haque and Shahriar Nafees remained unbeaten with scores of 46 and 81 runs respectively at the close.

SCORES IN BRIEF 

CENTRAL ZONE V NORTH ZONE

CENTRAL ZONE: 220 all out and 318 all out in 89.4 overs (Mosaddek 104, Mosharraf 54, Shuvagata 45; Mohor 5-69, Ebadat 4-88)

NORTH ZONE: 255 all out and 7 for one in 3.3 overs (Mizanur 7, Junaid 0 not out, Sunzamul 0 not out; Abu Hider 1-5)

EAST ZONE V SOUTH ZONE

EAST ZONE: 473 all out (Rony 53, Shamsur 153, Tasamul 48, Yasir 112, Enamul 46; Razzak 5-171, Mahedi 2-99, Fazle 2-14, Al-Amin 1-40)

SOUTH ZONE: 258 all out in 81.1 overs and 135 for no loss (f/o) in 40 overs (Nafees 81 not out and Anamul 46 not out; Hasan 0-18 in 8 overs)