Najmul Hossain Shanto, the captain of Najmul XI, won the toss and sent Tamim XI to bat first. The wicket looked better than the two previous games but Tamim XI failed to utilise the chance.
Tanzid Hasan Tamim, who came to the limelight for his U-19 performance, struck two wonderful fours at the start of the innings. But he fell prey to Al Amin Hossain scoring eight off five balls.
Anamul Haque Bijoy joined Tamim in the wicket and fell for 12 off 13 balls. He also hit two fours and was looking comfortable in the middle. Anamul fell as Soumya Sarkar took a brilliant catch at the slip cordon.
After the removal of Anamul, it was Mohammad Mithun who failed again as he scored only four this time. Nayeem Hasan, the off-spinner, sent Mithun back to the dressing room as his first wicket in the match.
The onus was on Tamim to guide his team to a challenging total, but after adding five runs following Mithun’s dismissal, he got caught by Rishad Hossain while playing Nayeem. Tamim fell for 33, his best in two games.
Shahadat Hossain Dipu, who hit a fifty in the knock-out stage of the last ICC U-19 World Cup to help the Young Tigers book a place in the next round, scored 31 before being hunted by Rishad.
Mosaddek Hossain, Akbar Ali and Mohammad Saifuddin scored 12, 2 and 3 respectively. Tamim XI lost eight wickets just in 125, which was indicating to another poor batting show. But Taijul Islam and Mahadi Hassan added 95 runs in the ninth-wicket stand.
Mahadi fell for 82 off 57 balls with nine fours and three sixes. He tried to scoop Mukidul Islam Mugdho but failed to time the ball correctly. Taijul remained unbeaten for 20 off 43 balls.
Al Amin Hossain continued bowling well as he bagged three wickets conceding 43 runs in 10 overs while Taskin Ahmed and Mukidul Islam took one wicket each. Nayeem and Rishad took two wickets each conceding 28 and 21 respectively in 10 and five overs.
In their first game, Najmul XI beat Mahmudullah XI by four wickets while Tamim XI lost to Mahmudullah XI by five wickets in their first game. So this game came to a big challenge for Tamim’s team. They now have to defend the total fo 221 runs to keep their dream of final alive.
Brief score:
Tamim XI: 221/9 in 50 overs, Mahadi 82, Tamim 33, Shahadat 31, Al Amin 3/43, Rishad 2/21, Nayeem 2/28