The Shaheed Kamruzzaman Stadium at Bogra will be known for some great achievements made in the Walton LED TV 17th National Cricket League 2015-16.
Before the start of Round 6, the stadium already saw 10 centuries being made here in the 5 matches being played in this ground. In the sixth match, the ground hosted another 3 centuries, one of them was a double-ton and the other two were made by the same individual in two innings of the match!
The match between Barisal Division and Chittagong Division could not be termed as an ordinary match, as all the three innings saw something extraordinary from specifically two batsmen of the two teams. Shahriar Nafees is the man who needs to be talked about more as the National Cricket League comes to an end. The highest run-scorer of the tournament, with 715 runs, hit 2 centuries, both of which came in the two innings of this match, 168 in the first and 174* in the second. Between these two innings, Mominul played a ‘master-stroke’ innings of 239 runs, the highest score of this year’s NCL.
Khulna Division was the Champion of the 17th National Cricket League, and they have done it for the fourth time. Only Dhaka and Rajshahi Divisions have won the NCL title more-five times. Barisal earns top spot in Tier 2 and gets a promotion to Tier 1 for the next season. Rangpur Division could not defend their last season’s title; rather they get demoted to Tier 2 for the next NCL Season, as they finished at the bottom of Tier 2!
The match belonged to Shahriar Nafees more and Mominul just grabbed the opportunity to bat to the fullest and hit the highest score of the tournament. Two tons in two innings is a great achievement undoubtedly, and Shahriar Nafees achieved this particular success with an unbeaten 174 runs, helping his team get promoted to Tier 1 for the next season.
Mominul haque for his 239 runs in the only innings and Shahriar Nafees for his total tally if 342 runs in this match, were deservingly adjudged the Players of the Match.
Finally the toss was held, as well as the match saw some play take place. Not only that, Shamsur Rahman of Dhaka Metro made exclusive use of the opportunity to bat by scoring a century, his third of the 17th NCL, most by any batsman in this tournament. Mehedi maruf could have got his century as well, but he left the crease retired hurt being just one run short of 100. The match ended to a dull draw, which was expected as there was no play for continuous three days.
Twin centuries from Farhad and skipper Hamidul on Day 2 kept Rajshahi in a comfortable position to rule the match. They took a massive 219-run lead standing on these two performers only, after Sylhet was bowled out for 176 runs only in their first innings. Farhad made 144 and Hamidul put on 105 on board as these two added 159 runs between them. Nasum Ahmed took 3 wickets and Khaled-Imran shared two each. Sylhet were 11 without a wicket at the end of Day 2, but lost track soon on Day 3.
Every other batsman were just coming out and going back to the pavilion, except for Ruman Ahmed, who held his nerve and played in an attacking mode. He picked up his century, scoring 106 runs before falling to Nihaduzzaman. He hit 14 fours and 4 sixes in the process of scoring this century, and could only help his team gain a narrow lead for Rajshahi to chase down easily. Rajshahi won by 10 wickets in the end with almost one and a half day of play left. Farhad Hossain was adjudged the Player of the Match for his all-round performance of 144 runs and 3 wickets in the match. Sanzamul Islam of Rajshahi finished the tournament as the highest wicket-taker with 39 wickets.
Day 2 saw only 7 overs of play with the most happening part being the toss being held. Khulna Division won the tossand elected to field, as Rangpur Division’s top order batsmen were unable to respond well to the bowling of Razzak and Murad. Razzak took 4 wickets, his fourth victim being Tanveer Haider, as he picked up his first hundred of the tournament before getting out. He built up a 116-run stand with Dhiman Ghosh (69) and another 126 runs with Suhrawardi Shuvo(66*) to take Rangpur’s score to 324-7 at the end of play on Day 3. Abdur Razzak bagged a five-wicket haul, with Murad taking four, to end Rangpur’s innings at 344 runs.
The match did not seem as dull as it was expected, although it ended as a draw. Imrl Kayes scored an aggressive hundred before getting out. Ziaur Rahman continued from that position and went on to make 62 runs, staying unbeaten as Khulna declared at 286-7, at which point the match as announced a draw. Tanveer Haider was the Player of the Match, with his century and two wickets.
Khulna won the title of the Walton LED TV 17th National Cricket league 2015-16.
