WC stars hammer MSC
Mosaddek Hossain celebrated his World Cup call-up with a fine all-round performance as Abahani continued their supremacy over traditional rivals Mohammedan with a 45-run victory in the Super League encounter of the Dhaka Premier League at BKSP yesterday.
The 23-year-old cricketer was named in Bangladesh's 15-member squad for the 2019 World Cup announced on Tuesday as a spin-bowling all-rounder and the cricketer from Mymensingh provided some evidence of his calibre during yesterday's Super League clash. Mosaddek led from the front with a three-wicket haul after hitting an unbeaten 57-ball 54 with the help of five fours and a six.
Sabbir Rahman (64 off 53 balls), Mohammad Mithun (56 off 52 balls) and Mohammad Saifuddin (41 off 35 balls) also celebrated their World Cup call-ups by contributing substantially with the bat to lift Abahani to a mammoth 304 for seven after recovering from 32 for two.
When it came to defending the total, Mosaddek took charge along with inspirational Bangladesh ODI skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, who achieved a milestone by becoming just the second Bangladesh bowler after Abdur Razzak to take 400 List A wickets. Another World Cup squad member, Soumya Sarkar, grabbed two wickets to wrap up Mohammedan for 259.
Former national player Raquibul Hasan continued his good form with a 79-ball 96 that featured 10 fours and four sixes and Mohammad Ashraful added 68 off 85 balls after an initial hiccup that saw Mohammedan teetering at 61 for four. Their efforts, however, were not good enough to avert a second defeat of the season against their archrivals after having suffered six-wicket defeat in the first round.
Their second consecutive win in the Super League helped defending champions Abahani (20 points) reduce the gap with leaders Legends of Rupganj (22 points), which suffered a four-wicket defeat against Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club in a low-scoring match at the Fatullah Cricket Stadium.
Elias Sunny was the hero in the match as he scored 58 runs off 99 balls after opening the innings, which followed economical bowling figures of 10-1-27-1 as Rupganj reached the target of 172 with four wickets and nine balls remaining. Tanbir Hayder was the other notable scorer with an unbeaten 43 off 53. Earlier, pacer Khaled Ahmed took four wickets for 31 runs to dismiss Rupganj for 171.
At the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur, Forhad Reza came up with an all-round show, hitting an unbeaten 24-ball 41 after claiming four wickets for 22 to guide Prime Doleshwar Sporting Club to a seven-wicket victory against Prime Bank Cricket Club.
Prime Bank could manage only 169 runs despite Alo Kapali's 61 and Doleshwar eclipsed the total easily, with 38 balls to spare.
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