First day of the National Cricket League's fifth round certainly belonged to the bowlers as a total of 44 wickets fell in the three matches respectively across the country yesterday.
Rajshahi and Chittagong highlighted probably the most fascinating scorecard of a day. At the Shaheed Chandu Stadium in Bogra, Chittagong and Rajshahi bowled out each other in their first innings, with Chittagong losing four wickets at the end of the day in their second innings as well.
The day also delivered three five wicket hauls, courtesy Bansal's Sohag Gazi, Rajshahi's Forhad Reza and Chittagong's Kamrul Islam.
CHITTAGONG-RAJSHAHI
Forhad, Rajshahi's skipper, won the toss and sent the opponents to bat and led his team from the very first over. The all-rounder started proceedings with the second ball of the match, trapping Chittagong's Mahbubul Karim leg-before before doing the same with the other opener Nafees Iqbal.
Forhad's magnificent spell of ten overs brought him five wickets for just 16 runs as the port city side were all out for a mere 72 runs. Twenty was the highest score coming from Rezaul Karim's bat at No 7.
After Forhad starred for Rajshahi, it was Kamrul Islam, Chittagong's leftarm seamer, who brought the game back to life after his six-wicket haul.
Not as low as the port city side but Rajshahi were bundled out for 151 in 39
overs only with Kamrul taking 6-55. Batting at No 7, Zubair Ahmed scored 34 hitting three boundaries and a six, while earlier Farhad Hossain made 30 off 66 bails with four boundaries.
Trailing by 81 runs, Chittagong started their second innings and lost four wickets for 46 runs.
Once again Forhad caused damage picking up two wickets at the top. Nazmul Islam and Rezaul Karim were the unbeaten batsmen on ten and one respectively and will come out to bat today with their team still 35 runs behind.
Twenty-four wickets fell on the day giving the impression that it probably was a bad wicket to play on with uneven bounce, but match referee Raqibul Hasan had other views.
"It's a perfect wicket for a cricket match. The wicket is very sporting — little swing for bowlers, even bounce for batsmen," he described.
"It showed the lacking of our cricket. Batsmen failed to put the right application and shot selection was poor," Raquibul added.
DHAKA-BARISAL
Barisal maintained their bowling consistency in the league after they bowled out Dhaka for just 133 runs at the Sylhet Divisional Stadium.
Off-spinner Sohag and seamer Shafaq Al Jabir once again were among the wickets, picking up 5-32 and 3-18 respectively.
Dhaka's opener Uttam Sarkar played 100 balls for his 60 but he didn't get the support from his teammates as 17 became the second highest score, coming from Mohammad Mazid's bat. Uttam hit nine boundaries in his knock.
As Barisal maintained consistency in their bowling, they also remained the same 'poor batting' side. They lost seven wickets for 173 runs before finishing the day with a lead of 40 runs.
Middle-order batsman Asif Ahmed was the highest scorer with 57 from 76 balls. The youngster hit nine four's in his innings.
Paceman Mahbubul Alam took four wickets for 31.
KHULNA-SYLHET
Unlike the other two matches, it was a quiet day at the Shaheed Kamruzzaman Stadium in Rajshahi.
Sylhet sent into bat first, finished the day with 226-3 on board against Khulna.
Opener Imtiaz Hossain and Saikat Ali made half-centuries but failed to stretch their innings as they both got out of Tapash Ghosh's bowling after scoring 62 and 51 respectively. Imtiaz hammered six four's and two sixes in his 166 ball knock, while Saikat managed sixboundaries.
Golam Rahman and Golam Mabud were the unbeaten batsmen on 46 and 29 respectively.
BRIEF SCORES
CHITTAGONG: First inns 72 all out (Rezaul 20; Farhad 5-16) and second inns 46-4 (Karim 12; Farhad 2-23).
RAJSHAHI: First inns 151 all out (Zubair 34, Hossain 30; Kamrul 6-55, Mamun 2-28).
DHAKA: First inns 133 all out (Uttam 60; Shohag5-32,Shafaq 3-18).
BARISAL: First inns 173-7 (Asif 57, Faruque35; Mahbubul 4-3 l.Tayebur 1-15).
SYLHET: First inns 226-3 (Imtiaz 62, Saikat 51; Tapash 2-44).