Mahedi ton swings match Khulna’s way

A counter-attacking century from Mahedi Hasan has turned things around for Khulna against Rangpur in their Tier 1 National Cricket League (NCL) match at Mirpur on Sunday.

In reply to Rangpur's first innings total of 224, Khulna were reeling at 80-8 before Mahedi took charge of things and formed a 133-run partnership with Rubel Hossain (36*).

Mahedi's innings of 119 came off just 150 balls with 15 boundaries and one six as Khulna eventually posted 233 to take a nine-run lead.

Boosted by this, Khulna's bowlers pegged back Rangpur to 67-4 at the close of play.

Off-spinner Abdur Razzak was once again the chief destroyer as he took 3-12 after taking 7-69 in the first innings to take ten wickets in the match; he reached the milestone of 600 first-class wickets, becoming the first Bangladesh cricketer to do so on Saturday.

In the other Tier 1 match, Dhaka have taken a 54-run first innings lead against Rajshahi with six wickets still intact at Cox's Bazar.

Dhaka, with a 180-run unbeaten partnership from Taibur Rahman (93*) and Shuvagata Hom (92*) have ended the day on 284-4 after Rajshahi were dismissed for 230 runs.

A 178 from opener Shadman Islam helped Dhaka Metro post a massive total of 403 and march towards victory in their Tier 2 match against Chittagong.

In reply, Dhaka were bundled out for just 91 runs and then ended the day at 96-3 at stumps after following on and still trail by 216 runs.

For Dhaka, Taskin Ahmed took 3-34 while Sharifullah took 4-30 in the first innings.

In the other Tier 2 match, Sylhet have taken control against Barisal at Cox's Bazar thanks to a solid batting effort.

Batting first, Barisal scored just 162 in the first innings but Sylhet replied solidly with 322 to take a 160-run lead.

Opener Shanaj Ahmed was the pick of the batsmen with 73 but his fellow opener Imtiaz Hossain (48), Zakir Hasan (53) and wicketkeeper-batsman Jaker Ali (35) chipped in with useful contributions.

In their second innings, Barisal are 12-1 and look unlikely to get a positive result out of this match at the end of day two.