Najmul Hossain Shanto鈥檚 impressive comeback innings of 80 off 54 went in vain as Barishal stunned Rajshahi by chasing down 184 runs during the third round of the NCL T20 at the outer ground of the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium on Saturday.
National team captain Shanto, who was playing his first competitive match after missing out on the ongoing West Indies tour due to injury, along with Habibur Rahman (47 off 33) and Sabbir Hosan (23 off 11), helped Rajshahi to post a challenging total after sent to bat first.
In reply, Barishal openers Abdul Mazid (53 off 39), Iftakhar Hossain (35 off 24) and Fazle Mahmud (56 off 34) laid a solid foundation. Then, Salman Hossain (21 off 12) and Moin Khan (15 off 8) took them off the mark with three balls to spare.
At the main ground in the morning, Dhaka suffered a crushing defeat by 10 wickets to Chattogram after skittled out for just 64. Left-arm pacer Fahad Hossain took four for 11 runs, while Ifran Hossain, Ahmed Sharif, and Mahmudul Hasan took two wickets apiece.
Chattogram openers Mahmudul Hasan Joy and Tamim Iqbal got them home in 11 overs with all the wickets unscathed.
In the afternoon, the reigning longer version NCL champions Sylhet suffered their third consecutive defeat as they got outplayed by five wickets against Rangpur at the main ground.
Batting first, Sylhet managed only 120-6 after Tofael Ahmed hit 51 off 38 while batting at seven.
Rangpur鈥檚 duo of veteran Naeem Islam (50 off 35) and young gun Abdullah Al Mamun (29 off 12) got them to their third consecutive win with 26 balls.
At the outer ground, Khulna fell short of six runs while chasing Dhaka Metro鈥檚 146 runs in an 18-over contest. Metro opener Imranuzzaman top-scored with 46 off 28 while Khulna pacer Mehedi Hasan Rana took 3 for 25.
In the chase, Khulna kept losing wickets regularly. The Bangladesh U-19 team captain, Azizul Hakim, top-scored with 29 from 17, but other than him, none could make any substantial contribution. Metro鈥檚 off-spinner Aliss Al Islam took three for 24.