Talha Kamal
Barisal division pacer Kamrul Islam Rabbi’s fiery pace bowling dismantled Sylhet by just 86 runs in the first innings during Day 3 of the tier 2 National Cricket League (NCL) match in Rajshahi yesterday. Pacer Rabbi finished the first innings with six wickets in his locker. It was his career best bowling in first class cricket, with impressive figures of 24/6.
In reply to Sylhet’s 86, Barisal scored 231/8 and declared. Veteran batsman Shahriar Nafees and Fazle Mahmud were the star performers with the bat for Barisal.
They scored 63 and 70 respectively. Sylhet struggled to find any kind of rhythm in the second innings as well as they finished the day with score of 27/2. They will start day 4 trailing by 118 runs with 8 wickets in hand.
Sylhet started the third day with 68/3 at the Shahid AHM Kamaruzzaman Divisional Stadium in Rajshahi.
On this day, in a shambolic manner they lost the last 7 wickets by scoring only 18 runs! Zakir Hasan was the highest scorer with only 32 runs coming from his bat. Alok Kapali and Towfiq Khan were the other two batsmen who crossed the single digit mark.
Rabbi, who took 2 wickets in the previous day, has taken 4 more yesterday.
The pacer, who is currently out of the national team, got five-wicket haul for the second time in first class cricket career. In the spin department, Nuruzzaman took three wickets without giving any runs in three overs.
Sylhet faced Barisal Division in Rajshahi in four-day NCL match on Thursday. The first day was called off due to rain. Rain also hampered the second day’s play as only 31 overs were bowled. Meanwhile in other NCL matches of the day, in second innings Dhaka Division lead by 249 runs with 4 wickets in hand against Rajshahi Division in their tier 1 match at Fatullah. Dhaka Metro lead by 59 runs with 3 wickets in hand in their first innings against Chattogram Division.
In the other tier 1 match between Rangpur and Khulna, Khulna trail by 35 runs with 7 wickets in hand after Rangpur’s first innings
total of 227.
