An unbeaten magnificent knock of master blaster Tamim Iqbal went in vain when his team Minister Group Dhaka failed to grab a crucial victory over Chottagram Challengers when they could manage 145 going to chase the target of 148 runs.
Held at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium in the keenly contested match Chottagram Challengers sent to bat first, with a combined effort led by Shamim Hossain’s 52 off 37 ball amassed a moderate total of 148.
Minister Dhaka seemed a bit success when they made an initial blow with breaking the opening partnership only on nine runs to put Chottagram Challengers into huge trouble. Will Jacks and Afif Hossain trying to rebuild the innings after the immediate the disaster of losing the opener but the former departed after scoring 40 runs partnership, he has gone for 26 run and the team was on 49.
But the Challengers again saw another big setback losing Mehdi Hassan and captain Afif Hossain, who got out quickly adding just seven runs on the board. Afif scored 27 off 24 balls when Mehdi Hasssan played only three balls to score two runs and it looked Minister Dhaka would cheaply complete their innings.
But Shamim Hossain and Benny Howell scored a valuable 58 runs partnership playing 6.4 overs to steer Chottagram to make a respectable total or 148 runs.
Replying to a moderate total Dhaka Minister also initially saw huge trouble losing three wickets for 21 runs when Tamim Iqball just watching his opening partner Mohammad Shahzad, one down Imruzzam and then Mashrafee Mortaza went pavilion scoring 7, 8 and 0 respectively. Captain Mahmud Ullah Riyad joined Tamim to make a 61 runs partnership before the captain being caught by Howell off Mehdi Miraz for 24 runs.
Riyad, though was too slow to score 24 runs playing 29 balls but played an important role to bring the team to closer to the target but was not enough to win the match.
Shuvagata Hom as number eight bats tried hard with smacking 22 off 11 balls but could not bring the team to winning target despite Tamim was till unbeaten with 73 off 56 balls. Tamim featured his innings with six boundaries and three sixes but his splendid performance was over-shadowed by the last over of Mrintunjoy Chowdhury who conceded only five runs and bowled Qais Ahmed for one with the first ball, then allowed national team’s opener Mohammad Naim to take only two runs from five balls.
