Bangladesh needed to defend only eight runs in the final over to prevent Pakistan from a clean-sweep of the three-match T20I series on Monday at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium. Captain Mahmudullah Riayd conceded no run in the first three balls and scalped two wickets as well, but in the end, the Tigers failed to prevail and avoid a clean-sweep.  Off the fourth ball of the last over, Iftikhar Ahmed smashed a six before falling apart in the next ball, and Pakistan’s target came down to two runs of the last ball. Mohammad Nawaz smashed the last ball through the extra-cover area to end the series at 3-0.  READ: Mahmudullah has few answers as Tigers’ rut continues Captain Mahmudullah bagged three wickets in the last over conceding 10 runs. His late flourish brought some life in yet another low-scoring affair at the Mirpur wickets, but that was not enough for the Tigers. To chase down a moderate target of 125, Pakistan top-order put up 104 runs on the board and it was a matter of time for Pakistan to pull up the match.  Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam scored 32 in the first wicket stand. Babar  fell prey to Bangladesh’s only leg spinner Aminul Islam for 19 while Rizwan scored 40. Number three Haider Ali posted 45.  In the last four overs, Pakistan needed 26 runs and that later came down to 8 in the last over that Bangladesh failed to defend.  Earlier, with another poor batting display, Bangladesh posted a moderate total of 124 for seven in 20 overs. Bangladesh won the toss and opted to bat first. Mohammad Naim guided the hosts scoring 47 off 50 balls. Along with him, Shamim Hossain and Afif Hossain also did well scoring 22 and 20 respectively.  The hosts’ batters were missing the x-factor in their batting once again. Both Afif and Shamim got a good start but failed to capitalize on it. READ: Mahmudullah blames top-order batting after defeat to Pakistan  Mohammad Wasim and Usman Qadir scalped two wickets each for Pakistan.   Pakistan won both of the first two matches quite easily. Bangladesh failed to pose any quality resistance in both games.  Both teams will lock horns in a two-Test series beginning on November 26 in Chattogram, and the second Test will be played in Dhaka from December 4.

Coming into the fourth round of the ongoing Banglabandhu Dhaka Premier Division Twenty20 Cricket League, Mohammedan Sporting Club suffered their first defeat at the hands of Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club on Monday at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.  It was Nurul Hasan Sohan, the wicketkeeper-batsman, whose previous highest score this season was just 22, who came up with a whirlwind 66 off 34 deliveries with four fours and five sixes and helped his team to post a challenging total of 161 runs for five in 20 overs.  Read: Dhaka League T20: Khelaghar shock Abahani Mohammedan failed to chase down the target of 162 despite a 43-ball 57 by Nadif Chowdhury. Ebadat Hossain and Enamul Haque bagged three early wickets to destroy their top-order, and Mohammedan failed to recover from that early damage.  Sheikh Jamal won the toss and batted in an unexpected way to score only 85 runs for five in 15 0vers. But in the last five overs, they added 76 runs without losing any more wickets, thanks to some big hittings from Nurul and Ziaur Rahman who ended up on 35 off 17 balls with one four and three sixes.  Shakib Al Hasan and Abu Hider took two wickets each. Abu Hider conceded 53 runs in four overs.  Read: Taskin, Abu Jayed overshadow Mustafizur’s five-for In reply, Mohammedan slumped to 15/4, and at the very early stage of the game, they lost the race. Pavez Hossain Emon, who hit a fifty in the previous game, suffered a duck this time around. Along with him, Irfan Sukkur, who also had hit a fifty in the second game of the season, suffered second consecutive duck, and in between them, Shakib only posted two runs.    Mohammedan’s last ray of hope was the bats of Shamsur Rahman and Nadif Chowdhey, who came up with a 48-run stand in the fifth wicket partnership. But they eventually ended up on 145 for eight in 20 overs and lost the game by 16 runs.    For Sheikh Jamal, Enamul bagged three wickets while Ziaur took two.    In the other two games of the day, Gazi Group Cricketers beat Legends of Rupganj by seven wickets and Prime Bank Cricket Club beat Partex Sporting Club by 72 runs at BKSP.    Soumya Sarkar hit 53 off 43 balls with four fours and two sixes for Gazi while Mohammad Mithun was the best batsman for Prime Bank scoring 57 off 36 deliveries with three fours and as many as sixes. For Prime Bank, Rubel Hossain bagged four wickets conceding 30 runs in four overs. It was his first game in the season.

Despite having 14 stitches on his left hand, Dhaka Platoon captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza wants to play the Eliminator game of his team against Chattogram Challengers on January 13 at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.