Bangla Tigers, a Bangladeshi-owned franchise team, conceded six-wicket defeat in the maiden 8-team Abu Dhabi T10 League losing to Deccan Gladiators by six wickets in the 2nd last ball thriller at the Zayed Cricket Stadium on Saturday.

Sent into bat first, Bangla Tigers scored 108 runs for 5 in stipulated 10 overs with South African Colin Ingram contributing 37 runs off 21 balls, hitting fours sixes

Besides, Rilee Roussow scored 26 runs off 12 balls featuring two fours and two sixes, Thomas J Moores scored 11-ball 15 with one four one six while  Roby Frylick made not out 12 runs off seven balls, hitting two boundaries.

M Pretorius grabbed three wickets for 10 runs while MS Crame and Fawad Ahmed took one wicket each conceding 15 and 24 runs respectively.

In reply, Deccan Gladiators scored the match-winner 109 runs for the loss of four wickets in 9.5 overs.

Australian celebrated batsman Shane Watson scored the match-highest 41 runs off 25 balls with three hits to fence and three over the fence and was adjudged the man of the match.

Besides, AP Devcich (27), DW Lawrence (15), PBB Rajapaksa  (12) were the other main contributors for Deccan Gladiators.

D Wiese took two wickets for 15 runs while LE Plunkett and Qais Ahmed took one wicket each.

Earlier, Bangla Tigers have been drawn into the tournament’s Group A with Deccan Gladiators, Delhi Bulls and Karnataka Tuskers in what will be a tightly contested group.

Bangla Tigers team : Colin Ingram, Rilee Roussow, Roby Frylick, Andre Fletcher, Qais Ahmad, Liam Plunkett, Thomas James Moores, David Wiese, Chirag Suri,  Abdul Hashem, Kevin Koththigoda, Shehan Jayasuriya, Prabath Jayasuriya and Farhad Reza

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) on Saturday evening unveiled the logo of the special edition of Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) which is rebranded for a single edition in the name of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. 

The Bangabandhu BPL will take the field from December 11 with the participation of seven teams. For the first time, BPL is not a franchise-based event this time. The BCB manifested earlier that there will be no franchise this time around. 

Before the main event, the player draft will be held on November 17 in Dhaka. A total of 181 local and 439 foreign cricketers are listed for the draft. 

Local cricketers are categorised as A-plus, A, B, C, D and E, and their salary caps are Tk 50 lakh, 25 lakh, 18 lakh, 12 lakh, 8 lakh and 5 lakh respectively. 

Foreign cricketers, on the other hand, are categorized into five different categories and those are A-plus, A, B, C and D. Their salary caps are US$ 1 lakh, 70,000, 50,000, 30,000 and 20,000 respectively. 

BCB president Nazmul Hasan earlier said an opening ceremony will be held on December 6 before the main event.
 

An 18-year-old rookie pace bowler, Ruyel Miah of Sylhet, announced himself on the national stage with an astonishing 8-wicket haul that destroyed the Chattogram batting line up, bowling them out for just 106 in the first innings in the National Cricket League (NCL), the sole domestic first class cricket competition.

Ruyel’s final figures of 8/26 are the best ever by a Bangladeshi at first class level. It gave his side a good chance of earning promotion from Tier 2 to Tier of NCL next year.   

Other performances that made headlines Saturday as the 6th and final round of NCL matches got underway across its two tiers were Taibur Rahman, Sohrawordi Shuvo and Fazle Mahmud also came to the limelight scoring centuries for their respective teams on day one on Saturday.

Dhaka vs Khulna: At the Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium in Khulna, the championship is at stake with the two table-toppers in Tier 1 facing off against each other. On day 1, second-placed Dhaka made a goodish start as they look to deny table-topping Khulna a record 7th NCL title.  

After Khulna won the toss and sent Dhaka in to bat first, the central division fought doggedly to bat the entire day, reaching 273 for 7 at stumps. Right-arm pacer Abdul Halim picked up two early wickets sending Khulna  in deep trouble in the very beginning of the game. Uttam Sarkar and Shafiul Hayat were both sent back to the pavilion with ducks to their name. Raqibul Hasan took part in a recovery effort but when he was out 24 leaving Dhaka 47/3, it didn’t look as if they would survive the day.

However, Abdul Mazid and Taibur Rahman added 129 runs for the fourth wicket, and with that the game was back on. Before falling prey to Halim, Mazid scored 66. Taibur completed his century, falling for 110 off 180 with seven fours and three sixes.

Shuvagata Hom remained batting with 56 runs with Nazmul Islam (5*). Eventually, Dhaka ended day-1 scoring 273 for 7 in 90 overs.

Abdul Halim bagged 5/27 while Ziaur Rahman picked up two wickets for 20 runs in eight overs.

Brief score: Dhaka Division 1st innings 273/7 (Taibur 110, Mazid 66, Shuvagata 56*, Abdul Halim 5/27, Ziaur 2/20)

Rangpur vs Rajshahi: In the other Tier-1 match between Rangpur and Rajshahi, Rangpur made a good start in the final round of NCL scoring 263 runs for eight wickets in 85 overs.

Rajshahi won the toss and opted to field first. Rangpur lost both of their openers within 11 runs. After the initial blow, they added 66 runs in the third wicket stand with the help of Sohrawordi Shuvo and captain Naeem Islam.

Shuvo hit a ton (105) while Naeem posted 40. Along with them, Ariful Haque (57) and Tanbir Hyder (26*) did well with the bat. But, Nasir Hossain failed to continue on good run as he fell for 5 this time.

Right-arm pace duo- Delwar Hossain and Mohor Sheikh bagged four and three wickets respectively.

Brief score:
Rangpur 1st innings 263/8 in 85 overs (Sohrawordi 105, Ariful 57, Naeem 40, Delwar 4/55, Mohor 3/53)

Tier 2

Barishal vs Dhaka Metro: Riding on a century by Fazle Mahmud, Barishal made a flying start against Dhaka Metro in the Tier-2 match scoring 338 runs for six wickets in 90 overs in Barishal.

Barishal won the toss and decided to bat first. Shahriar Nafees (44) and Abu Sayeem (12) added 40 runs in the opening stand. After the dismissal of Sayeem, Fazle took the field and hit 141 off 168 with 10 fours and eight sixes. Salman Hossain and Moin Khan ended the scoring 69* and 38* respectively.

Taskin Ahmed and Asif Hasan bagged two wickets each for Dhaka Metro.

Brief score:

Barishal 1st innings 338/6 in 90 overs (Fazle Mahmud 141, Salman 69*, Nafees 44, Taskin 2/40, Asif 2/74)

Chattogram vs Sylhet: At the Shaheed Chandu Stadium in Bogra, teenage tearaway Ruyel Miah came to the limelight as he recorded the best First Class bowling figures ever by a Bangladeshi, taking 8/26 against Chattogram after Sylhet won the toss and sent their opponents in to bat first.
Which wasn’t for long, as the south-east division were bundled out for 106 in just 35.1 overs as they were clueless to face Ruyel.
Tasamul Haque and Irfan Sukkur hit 21 each for Chattogram, while Shakhawat Hossain (11) and Noman Chowdhury (10) were the only other batsmen to score double- digits.

In reply, Sylhet posted 186 for five in 48 overs at the end of the day-1. Amite Hasan hit fifty (55) for Sylhet while Alok Kapali scored 41, and Asadullah Galib remained unbeaten on 28.

Ifran Hossain took four wickets for Chattogram conceding 76 runs in 14 overs.

Brief score:

Chattogram 1st innings: 106/10 in 35.1 overs (Tasamul 21, Irfan 21, Ruyel 8/26)
Sylhet 1st innings: 186/5 (Amite 55, Alok 41, Ifran 4/76)

Dhaka, Nov 16 (UNB) - BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Saturday said Bangladesh’s long-pending problems with India could not be resolved as the current government has no bargaining capacity.

“We don’t want to talk against India as we’ve no conflict with that country. The main problem is that now we’ve such a government in power that has no capacity to talk to India about our problems,” he said.

Speaking at a seminar, Fakhrul further said, “The government has no bargaining capacity to address the problems with India as it always depends on the country to hang on to power. This is the reality.”

The Association of Engineers, Bangladesh, a pro-BNP platform of engineers, arranged the programme on the possible adverse impacts on the country due to the Feni River water withdrawal deal with India at a city hotel.

Fakhrul said people have to realise that the more the current government will stay in power the more Bangladesh’s interests will be harmed, and its resources will get depleted.

Stating that the Feni River is Bangladesh’s river, not a common one, he said the government is allowing India to withdraw its water.  “The Prime Minister said how she can deny if anyone seeks water for drinking. That’s fine. But she didn’t say anything about the sufferings of our lakhs of people whose crops and livelihoods are getting destroyed for lack of water from the Teesta River.”

The BNP leader said India has long been refusing to give Bangladesh water from the Teesta while the issue of ensuring the fair share of water of other common rivers also remains unresolved.

He said Bangladeshis are getting killed along the border, but the government says the border killing has dropped substantially. “In fact, we don’t see any fall in border killing.”

Fakhrul said the government did not yet place in parliament the deals the Prime Minister recently signed with India. “There’s no discussion on the deals in parliament. As per our constitution, any deal signed with other country must be placed in parliament and ratified. But the government never did it.”

On October 5 last, Bangladesh and India signed seven bilateral documents after a bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi at Hyderabad House in New Delhi.

Fakhrul criticised Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen for his remark that the deaths of 53 workers in Saudi Arabia is insignificant. “It’s a dangerous comment.”

He said the minister earlier said Bangladesh’s relation with India is very warm. “I don’t want to utter what he exactly he said about it. It’s good that we’ve very nice relation with India, but why our interests aren’t protected and our problems aren’t resolved. Why can't we get water (from Teesta)?”

The BNP leader said the government has made the country’s economic condition very fragile with its wrong policies and corruption.

“They (govt) used to say Bangladesh is a role model. They’re such a role model that they’ve to depend on bank loans. All the banks have got depleted. Many economists are saying the future of the economy is bad,” he observed.

Fakhrul said the RMG export has marked a sharp fall and many garment factories are shut down while manufacturing industries are not setting up in the country.

He said there is no alternative to removing the current government from power to overcome the current crisis. “We must create a national unity to oust this monstrous regime.”

Formidable pace-attack of India crushed Bangladesh’s top-order again in the Indore Test as the Tigers lost four quick wickets during the first session of day-3 of the game. 

Before going to lunch break, Bangladesh scored 60 losing four wickets in 22 overs. Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmdullah Riyad are batting at 9 and 6 respectively.

Imrul Kayes and Shadman Islam failed once again to put up a solid foundation for the Tigers. They followed the same pattern of batting in the second innings being dismissed for 6 each.

Imrul was hunted by Umesh Yadav while Shadman fell prey to Ishant Sharma.

After the initial blow, Bangladesh fell into deeper trouble when Mohammad Shami came in and made a double-strike to remove Mominul Haque and Mohammad Mithun in a span of seven runs. 

Bangladesh are now trailing by 283 runs with only six wickets in hand. 

Earlier, Bangladesh won the toss in this game and opted to bat first, but they failed to impress on the first day as they tumbled for 150/10 in 58.3 overs. 

In reply, India put up 493/6 at the end of day-2. They opted not to bat on the third day morning.

Mayank Agarwal hit his career-best 243 in the first innings for India, which put Bangladesh under enormous pressure in the first Test of the two-match series. 

Along with Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara (54), Ajinkya Rahane (86) and Ravindra (60*) hit the fifties for India. 

For Bangladesh, Abu Jayed Rahi took four wickets conceding 108 runs in 25 overs while Ebadat Hossain and Mehidy Hasan Miraz took one wicket each.