ABAHANI, BIMAN Win, Mohamedan Lost

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Arman ton stuns Mohammedan:

Victoria's wicketkeeper-batsman Arman Hossain raises his bat after scoring his maiden century in the Premier Division Cricket League against Mohammedan Sporting Club at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday. Photo: BD

A scintillating unbeaten hundred by Arman Hossain helped Victoria pull off the first upset in the Premier Division Cricket League with an emphatic eight-wicket victory over Mohammedan at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur yesterday.

The mediocre Victoria registered their first win in three matches in style as they outshone their celebrated opponents by taking over a challenging total of 242 quite convincingly. On the other hand it was second setback for the popular black and whites after their tied first game against Young Pegasus.

At the Fatullah Cricket Stadium, pace spearhead Mashrafe Bin Mortaza led from the front as defending champions Abahani bounced back from their second round defeat against Gazi Tank to secure a 69-run victory over Young Pegasus in the low-scoring match.

After Mahbubul Alam's four-wicket burst, in-form Shakib Al Hasan fired on as Biman maintained their winning run with a comfortable seven-wicket victory over Partex Sporting Club at BKSP.

VICTORIA-MOHAMMEDAN
Put into bat first Mohammedan made a poor start by losing three wickets for 33 runs but a 105-run fourth wicket partnership between Nasiruddin Faruque and Pankaj Joshi gave the giants a solid foundation to put up a fighting total on the board.

But there were surprises in store for them. It was amazing the way the Victoria's top order chased down the total as they were totally disciplined in their batting and rotated the strike to take off the pressure.

Victoria made a perfect start before Amit Majumder fell victim of run out to break the 61-run stand but his partner Arman was brilliant to frustrate the Mohammedan bowling attack and got good support from Ashraful Aziz and Akil Arshad to reach the target with 244 for 2 in 43.2 overs.

Arman, a wicketkeeper batsman from Mymensingh who played for Sonargaon Cricketers in the last season, was careful to complete the fifty in 60 balls with three boundaries but later came up strong to smash the second hundred in the league after Abahani's Rony Talukdar.

The right-hander smote three more fours and two sixes to complete his ton in 99 balls.

Captain Sohrawordi Shuvo was the only successful bowler when the left-arm spinner trapped Ashraful lbw. Ashraful made 50 off 73 balls that featured five fours and a six while Akil remained not out on 46 off 57 balls that contained six fours.

Earlier Nasiruddin hit 61 off 96 balls with four boundaries and Pankaj scored highest 82 off 120 balls that included eight fours and a six but it was Faisal Hossain who enabled Mohammedan to put up the commanding total. The left-hander smashed four boundaries and as many sixes to make a 43-ball 67.

ABAHANI-PEGASUS
Indian all-rounder Venugopal Rao made his debut with Abahani and scored the team highest 37 off 61 balls in his side's otherwise poor batting display but still the holders were bundled out for 175 runs.

Pegasus however failed to cash in on their brilliant bowling effort as country's leading paceman Mashrafe along with his new ball partner Shubashis Roy fired on to warp up Pegasus for 106 runs.

Mashrafe claimed four wickets for 25 runs in 6.2 overs while Roy captured three for 16 runs in 10 overs.

Sri Lankan Ruvin Peiris top scored 37 off 77 balls with the help of four boundaries.

BIMAN-PARTEX
Shakib's purple patch continued as the world's number one all-rounder in ODI followed up his two for 30 with a blazing unbeaten 51 that saw four boundaries and three sixes as Biman posted 159 for three in reply to Partex's 153-9.

Veteran opener Javed Omar was the other notable scorer with 47 off 107 balls that featured six fours.

It was however man-of-the-match Mahbubul Alam who gave the foundation for the comfortable victory as the national right-arm paceman, who grabbed five wickets in the previous match against Pegasus, returned with a four-wicket haul to make the damage in the Partex innings.

Pakistani Rashed Hanif was the top scorer for Partex with 33 runs.

BRIEF SCORES
MOHAMMEDAN: 242-7 in 50 overs (Nasiruddin 61, Pankaj 82, Faisal 67, extras 18; Aslam 2-23, Salahuddin 2-47, Akil 1-41).
VICTORIA: 244-2 in 43.2 overs (Amit 29, Arman 100 not out, Ashraful 50, Akil 46 not out, extras 19; Shuvo 1-42).
Result: Victoria won by eight wickets.

ABAHANI: 175 all out in 47.2 overs (Tamim 16, Sahagir 23, Venugopal 37, Nasir 16, Rezaul 14, Nadif 13, Mashrafe 24, Kamrul 14, extras 12; Jubaer 2-30, Ruvin 2-27, Bashar 3-36).
PEGASUS: 106 all out in 36.2 overs (Rahat 13, Ruvin 37, Rubayet 11, Mobassair 14, extras 15; Mashrafe 4-25, Roy 3-16).
Result: Abahani won by 69 runs.

PARTEX: 153-9 in 50 overs (Mehrab 12, Rashed 33, Rezaul 28, Ariful 14, Omar 14, Azim 11 not out, extras 15; Mahbubul 4-24, Shakib 2-30).
BIMAN: 159-3 in 33.2 overs (Sadat 29, Javed 47, Jahurul 15, Shakib 51 not out, extras 13; Rashed 2-26).
Result: Biman won by seven wickets.