Jishan Alam took NCL T20 by storm as he smashed a 52-ball ton but was overshadowed by Ariful Islam鈥檚 94 off 46 balls as Dhaka chased down Sylhet鈥檚 205 in the last delivery in one of the four matches on the opening day at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium on Wednesday.聽
The match went down to the wire as Dhaka needed five runs in the final delivery. Shuvagata Hom hit a low full toss off Tofael Ahmed over extra-cover for a six to clinch a thrilling win.
This was only the fourth time that a team has chased down a 200-plus target in Bangladesh.聽
After losing a wicket in the first over, Dhaka were aided by Ariful, who hit eight sixes. But till then, it was all Jishan, who hit 10 sixes 鈥� third highest by a Bangladeshi batter 鈥� in his innings.聽
Five of those came in the 14th over off Arafat Sunny Jr.聽
In the other match of the morning, Dhaka Metro beat Barishal by 31 runs. The two openers鈥擭aim Sheikh (65 off 35) and Imranuzzaman (53 off 33)鈥攍aid a strong foundation for Metro, who eventually posted 192-4.
That proved to be too much for Barishal, who managed 161-8 despite Fazle Mahmud鈥檚 77 off 52 balls.聽
In the afternoon matches, Rajshahi and Rangpur saw the better of Khulna and Chattogram, respectively.聽
Rajshahi were 11 runs ahead in the DLS method when bad light stopped play at the Outer Ground after they scored 153-3 in 17.2 overs in reply to Khulna鈥檚 172-7.聽
Recently concluded U-19 Asia Cup champions Bangladesh captain Azizul Hakim top-scored with 53 off 31 for Khulna while Mrittonjoy Chowdhury played a cameo of 31 off 15. But opener Habibur Rahman鈥檚 38-ball 66 paved the way for Rajshahi.聽
At the Main Ground, Rangpur handed a thrashing defeat to Chattogram, who managed only 132-9 in 20 overs.
Tamim Iqbal, who returned to competitive cricket after May, scored 13 off 10 before being bowled by Anamul Haque.聽
Mukidul Islam took 3-17 while Alauddin Babu had two for just nine runs.聽
Rangpur then got home with five wickets and 19 balls remaining thanks to Tanbir Hayder鈥檚 41 off 37 and Naeem Islam鈥檚 12-ball 24.