Tamim wins captains’ clash
Yesterday's Bangabandhu Dhaka Premier League match between Prime Bank Cricket Club and Gazi Group pitted a host of national team stars and rising stars against each other and even an empty Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur could not dampen the battle of cricketing skills. The most intriguing facet was the coming together of the three captains of the Bangladesh national team, with newly-appointed ODI captain Tamim Iqbal skippering Prime Bank against T20 captain Mahmudullah Riyad and Test captain Mominul Haque's Gazi Group. Akbar Ali, who had led Bangladesh to an U-19 World Cup title in South Africa, added to the lustre of the captains' showpiece.
Tamim came out on top, and not just because his team won convincingly in the end as Prime Bank bested Gazi Group by 10 runs. In fact, it was Mahmudullah's Gazi Group that had controlled the game early. Having won the toss, Mahmudullah sent Prime Bank in to bat and curtailed run-scoring considerably in the first 15 overs while picking up two wickets, including the prized scalp of his opposite number.
Tamim has been in tremendous run-scoring form of late with two back-to-back tons against Zimbabwe in the recent ODI series, but he miscued a Nasum Ahmed delivery in the 15th over to depart after a 47-ball 19. Mahmudullah himself gave a good account of his bowling by picking up three wickets to make matters extremely difficult for Prime Bank after Rony Talukdar had brought parity with a 104-ball 79.
Nahidul Islam and Nayeem Islam turned saviours with an unbroken 97-run partnership with the former notching a 43-ball 53 while the latter struck a 36-ball 46 to take Prime Bank to a challenging score of 251 for six.
Tamim started with Nayeem in the second over and it immediately paid dividends as Nayeem scalped Zakir Hasan with his third delivery. Prime Bank had a pace battery up their sleeve too, with Mustafizur Rahman, Rubel Hossain and U-19 World Cup winner Shoriful Islam in their ranks.
Mominul had played patiently for his 28 alongside the more aggressive Soumya Sarkar but Tamim, for whom this was a dress rehearsal to the actual thing after being named captain of the Tigers' ODI side, brought bowling changes accordingly. Shoriful came in and beat Mominul all ends up with a searing delivery that squared up the Test captain. Mominul went for a wild slash and missed the next delivery before leaving the third delivery outside off well alone. The fourth delivery he slashed hard and was caught at deep point.
While Soumya tried to dictate with the bat, Tamim sought to reduce the effect of Soumya's knock. Importantly, he made Mahmudullah conform to his will, cutting off his singles and run-scoring shots with astute field settings, knowing his counterpart's tendency to be jittery against pace early on. Soumya was taking the game away before he departed for 49 off 51 to Nahidul and Mahmudullah lumbered to a 60-ball 32 before becoming the off-spinner's second victim.
Resistance came first from Akbar, then Mahedi Hasan. Akbar played some tremendous shots off Shoriful and Rubel but was run out following a misunderstanding with Mahedi and the latter then almost turned things around with a 49-ball 56. It was too late, however, as Shoriful prevailed in the final over with Gazi needing 21. For the time being, Tamim prevailed in his dress reharsal as Prime Bank got off to a winning start.
SCORES IN BRIEF
PRIME BANK V GAZI GROUP
PRIME BANK: 251 for 6 in 50 overs (Tamim 19, Rony 79, Mithun 27, Nahidul 53 not out, Nayeem 46 not out; Nasum 2-40, Mahmudullah 3-53)
GAZI GROUP: 242 for 9 in 50 overs (Soumya 49, Mominul 28, Mahmudullah 32, Ariful 20, Akbar 31, Mahedi 56 not out; Mustafizur Rahman 2-42, Nahidul 2-30, Kapali 2-32)
Result: Prime Bank won by 9 runs.
Player-of-the-match: Nahidul Islam.
SCORES IN BRIEF
MOHAMMEDAN V SHINEPUKUR
MOHAMMEDAN: 257 for 8 in 50 overs (Avishek 29, Mazid 42, Irfan 46, Shamsur 25, Mahmudul 58, Shuvagata 31; Mohor 2-46, Tanvir 2-44)
SHINEPUKUR: 258 for 5 in 49.3 overs (Tanzid 59, Sabbir 25, Robiul 54, Towhid 50, Mahidul 49, Mahmudul 1-20)
Result: Shinepukur won by 5 wickets.
Player-of-the-match: Tanzid Hasan.
SHEIKH JAMAL V KHELAGHAR SKS
SHEIKH JAMAL: 276 for 9 in 50 overs (Shykat 83, Suhrawordi 25, Nasir 56, Nurul 58, Ziaur 24; Khaled 2-48, Ifran 4-43, Masum 2-64)
KHELAGHAR SKS: 221 for 9 in 50 overs (Imtiaz 29, Jahurul 51, Salman 24, Masum 32, Ifran 24; Suhrawordi 2-26, Sunny 2-35, Sakil 2-36)
Result: Sheikh Jamal won by 55 runs.
Player-of-the-match: Shykat Ali.
Comments