Despite five of the top six batters returning with single-digit scores, Walton Central Zone chased a target of 218 to win this year’s Bangladesh Cricket League (BCL) on Thursday at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium. They beat BCB South Zone by four wickets riding on the superb fourth-innings hundred by veteran allrounder Shuvagata Hom. He smashed match-winning 114 under immense pressure. He also had a century in the first innings. Overall, he amassed 230 in the final and expectedly won the player of the match award. It was the third time Walton Central Zone won the BCL title. Read: BCL Cricket: Central Zone require 192 runs against South Zone on final day They won the inaugural edition of the event in the season of 2012-13. South Zone won the next two seasons before Central Zone won it again in the 2015-16 season. North Zone won their first title in the 2016-17 season before South Zone won it three consecutive times afterwards. Now, their winning streak came to an end finally thanks to wonderful batting effort from Shuvagata. In the way of chasing down the target of 218, Central Zone lost six wickets inside 68 runs. It was just a matter of time for them to capitulate to the South Zone at that stage. But Hom was rigid with the bat. He was too good for South Zone bowlers. Eventually, Central Zone scored 221 for six in 63.5 overs to seal the match and event. For South Zone, Mehedi Hasan Rana and Nasum Ahmed bagged two wickets each while Farhad Reza and Kamrul Islam Rabbi took one wicket each. Earlier, South Zone ended their second innings at 268 thanks to an incredible batting display by Rishad Hossain. The leg-spinner came up with the bat to rescue the team who had lost five for 70. Rishad scored 99— fell short of a single from his maiden First-class century. Read: BCL: Central Zone and South Zone march to final Abu Hider Rony scalped five wickets for Central Zone while Hasan Murad, Mukidul Islam, and Soumya Sarkar and Taibur Rahman took one wicket each. The teams which took part in the BCL longer version will now take on each other in the BCL 50-over from January 9. The event will kick off in Sylhet.

Mohammedan Sporting Club suffered their third defeat in the ongoing Bangabandhu Dhaka Premier Division Twenty20 Cricket League on Thursday against Legends of Rupganj by nine wickets at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.  Before this game, Mohammedan lost to Prime Doleshwar Sporting Club and Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club by 22 and 16 runs respectively.  On Thursday, Mohammedan won the toss and opted to bat first, but their batsmen failed to impress with the bat as they tumbled for 113 runs for nine wickets in 20 overs.  Shuvagata Hom was the highest runs getter scoring 52 off 32 balls with five sixes and one four while Abu Hider and Parvez Hossain Emon were the only two other batsmen to have reached double-digit scores of 15 and 10 respectively. For Rupganj, Sohag Gazi was the best bowler who bowled four overs and conceded only eight runs to take two wickets. Gazi failed to grab any wicket in the last five matches. Along with him, Mohammad Shahid, Naim Islam and Qazi Onik also bagged two wickets each.  In reply, Rupganj chased down the target in 18.1 overs riding on the fifty of Pinak Ghosh, 51 off 51 with five fours and one six, who was playing only his second T20. Mehedi Maruf also played well scoring 41 off 46 balls.  Mohammedan captain Shakib Al Hasan suffered a duck in this game, which his second in the season. The southpaw having a real bad patch in this league with the bat.  In the other games of the day, Prime Bank Cricket Club beat Prime Doleshwar Sporting Club by only three runs, while Gazi Group Cricketers beat Old DOHS Sports Club by six wickets. Mohammad Mithun won the player of the match award for his second fifty of the season for Prime Bank while Mahmudul Hasan Joy also won the award for his 55-ball 85 for Old DOHS, however, his team ended up losing the game. 

Dhaka Division all-rounder Shuvagata Hom Wednesday hit a 100 against Sylhet Division on the third day of the second round of the 22nd National Cricket League in Cox's Bazar. On the same day, Rahatul Ferdous of Sylhet bagged seven wickets against Dhaka and Mukidul Islam of Rangpur registered his second six-wicket haul in the match against Khulna in Rangpur. NCL 2nd round score after day two Khulna vs Rangpur Khulna 1st innings 221/10 in 49.2 overs (Tushar 116, Nurul 31, Nahidul 29; Mukidul 6/64, Nobin 2/31, Ariful 2/54) Rangpur 1st innings 364/10 in 97.1 overs (Ariful 97, Nasir 66, Dhiman 43, Tanbir 31; Masum 4/78, Robiul 2/41, Abdul Halim 2/88) Khulna 2nd innings 259/10 in 69.3 overs (Amit 89, Ziaur 64, Imrul 31; Mukidul 6/67, Mahmudul 2/24) Rangpur 2nd innings 16/0 in 7 overs (Jahid 14*, Nobin 1*) Also read: NCL: Rajshahi pull off record win Sylhet vs Dhaka Division Sylhet 1st innings 370/10 in 114.4 overs (Zakir 159, Jaker 67, Asadullah 67; Shuvagata 4/86, Taibur 2/31, Sumon 2/55) Dhaka 1st innings 280/10 in 79.1 overs (Shuvagata 114, Saif 42, Joyraj 41, Arafat Sunny 37; Rahatul 7/75, Tanzim 2/63) Sylhet 2n innings 183/6 in 64.4 overs (Asadullah 74, Zakir 33, Sayem 31; Saif 2/19, Shuvagata 2/39) Also read: NCL: Tushar, Zakir continue to shine with bat Barishal vs Rajshahi Division Barishal 1st innings 82/10 in 29.3 overs (Moin 18, Salman 13, Moinul 12; Sunzamul 4/18, Taijul 4/39, Mohor 2/7) Rajshahi 1st innings 151/10 in 48.5 overs (Junaid 43, Taijul 37, Tanzid 36; Sohag 6/65, Monir 1/4) Barishal 2nd innings 60/10 in 34 overs (Moinul 28, Kamrul 14; Sunzamul 6/15, Taijul 4/23) Result: Rajshahi won by an innings and 9 runs and Taijul won the man of the match award. Also read: Zakir, Nazmul best performers of NCL 1st round Chattogram vs Dhaka Metro Chattogram 1st innings 402/8 (declared) in 126.3 overs (Pinak 159, Shahadat 53, Yasir 49; Arafat Sunny 3/120, Shohidul 2/78, Al Amin 1/26, Abu Haider 1/30) Dhaka Metro 1st innings 267/10 in 107.2 overs (Zahiduzzaman 71, Shamsur 68, Sharifullah 38, Al Amin 34; Hasan Murad 5/72, Mehedi Hasan Rana 2/74) Chattogram 2nd innings 43/1 in 17 overs (Mahmudul 20*, Sadikur 19*)