Batsmen dominate in intra-squad match

BCB Red, led by Tamim Iqbal, beat the Mahmudullah-led BCB Green by five wickets in the intra-squad warm-up match at BKSP-4 in Savar on Thursday. 

BCB Red captain Tamim Iqbal starred with the bat. The left-hander scored a belligerent 80 off 58 balls while chasing 285 from 45 overs. Mushfiqur Rahim also had a handy countribution as the wicketkeeper batter scored 64 off 55 deliveries.

BCB Red got off to a flier courtesy of Tamim. Liton Das couldn't make a big score as the right hander was dismissed in the 9th over. Liton scored 15. 

But Tamim went his merry way and his team scored 82 for the loss of one wicket after only 10 overs. Imrul Kayes stitched a 61-run partnership for the second wicket with Tamim with the latter doing bulk of the scoring. Kayes scored 33 off 32. 

Tamim's knock of 80 off 58 was studded with seven fours and four sixes. Mushfiqur Rahim played a pivotal role in the chase with a score of 64. Mosaddek Hossain, Mahedi Hasan and Mohammad Saifuddin also chipped in with handy contributions.

Mahmudullah got a couple of wickets for BCB Green but the others were taken to the cleaners. BCB Red reached the target with four overs to spare.

Earlier, BCB Green skipper Mahmudullah won the toss and elected to bat first. Openers- Soumya Sarkar and Naim Sheikh started steadily. Naim, in particular, was the more aggressive of the two and maintained a pretty healthy strike rate before retiring hurt on 38 off 43 balls. The southpaw struck two boundaries. 

Soumya Sarkar got himself run-out early but was given another chance. He started watchfully but gained some momentum later. Soumya walked off after scoring 41 off 62 deliveries and returned towards the end to add 19 more off just eight deliveries. His unbeaten knock of 60 off 70 balls was studded with four fours and three maximums. 

Shakib Al Hasan was in good nick, picking up couple of boundaries but couldn't manage more than 28 as off-spinner Mahedi Hasan got rid of him and Mohammad Mithun in the same over. Mithun scored 3 off 10. 

Skipper Mahmudullah and Afif Hossain kept the bowlers at bay and scored runs at a healthy rate. Courtesy of these two batters, BCB Green scored 89 runs from over 31 to 40. Both the batters reached fifty with a strike rate of more than 100. Mahmudullah walked off scoring 62 off 54 while Afif retired after scoring 64 off same number of deliveries. 

BCB Green smashed 97 runs off the last 10 overs and piled up 284 for three from their allocated 45 overs.

BCB Red pacers were expensive. Only Shoriful Islsm, among pacers, got a wicket but gave away 45 runs off seven overs. Mustafizur Rahman and Mohammad Saufuddin went for plenty as well. Off-spinner Mahedi Hasan was the pick of the bowlers, picking up a couple. He went for 40 off nine overs.

Sri Lanka players will play an intra-squad match on Friday on the same venue.

The visitors  will lock horns with Bangladesh in the first ODI at Sher-E-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur on May 23. The visitors will play two more ODIs on the same venue on May 25 and 28. All the matches will be part of the ODI Super League.