Dhaka – An all-round performance by Mosaddek Hossain Saikat enabled Bangladesh U-23 cricket team to return to the winning way in the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Emerging Teams Cup Cricket beating Hong Kong U-23 team by 28 runs in their 2nd Group B match at the Karachi South End Club Cricket Stadium on Friday.The right-handed all-rounder hit a century and took two wickets to register the first win for the team in the tournament helping Bangladesh to stay in the race.
Bangladesh made a frustrating start in the four-team Group B after suffering a 97-run defeat against non-Test playing United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the group opener at the same ground on Thursday.
In the remaining Group B match, Bangladesh will play hosts Pakistan on December 9 at Karachi National Stadium to decide their fate for the semifinal berth from the group. Pakistan won both of their group matches against Hong Kong and the UAE.
In the day’s match, Bangladesh batted first after winning the toss and scored a fighting total of 286 runs for 8 in stipulated 50 overs, despite losing first wicket for just nine runs.
Bangladesh had a solid start as Zakir Hasan, the opener, scored 49 runs. They suffered a mini-collapse in a span of 10 runs while reaching to 99 from 89. They lost well-set batsman Zakir Hasan and Nazmul Hossain Shanto. Right after that, Mosaddek Hossain Saikat and Yasir Ali added 90 runs on the board in the fourth wicket stand which helped Bangladesh surpass the 250-mark.
While Yasir Ali fell for 45, Mosaddek ended his innings hitting a ton for 85 balls with eight fours and three sixes to his name. Aizaz Khan, the captain of Hong Kong, took three wickets for 62 runs. Hong Kong shocked Bangladesh with a solid start of 76 for two, and in the third wicket stand, they added 101 runs. But, they were not experienced enough to outclass Bangladesh. Both Nizakat Khan and Babar Hayat missed centuries for eight and nine runs respectively. If Bangladesh had not dismissed them, the story of the match would have been written differently. While Nayeem trapped Nizakat, Khaled bagged Babar Azam when they were pushing Bangladesh away from the match. Eventually, Hong Kong scored 258 for seven wickets. Khaled Ahmed and Mosaddek took two wickets each to seal the match. In the first match, Bangladesh tumbled to the UAE by a margin of 97 runs. The Bangladesh Emerging Team failed to chase down the total of 267 that the UAE posted on the board in the first innings of the match. Ashraf Ahmed and Ghulam Shabber hit the fifties for them. Shorifil Islam, the left-handed pacer of Bangladesh, took four wickets in the first match while Khaled Ahmed bagged another three. But their effort went in vain for the failure of the batsmen. Bangladesh gathered only 170 runs on the board and started the tournament on a negative note.UNB
