Divisional Cricket Club fought well

The Chittagong Divisional Cricket Club raised hopes till the end against the Zimbabwean side in a worm up match held in M A Aziz stadium today. Their mighty opponents defeated them by 13 runs in a low scoring match that left many exciting moments to its records. In response to Zimbabwe's 162 the local club were all out for 149 at the final over.

Heath Streak, Grant Flower and Garry Brent were given rest for this match and the renowned leg-spinner Paul Strang and right arm medium pacer Nkala are playing instead.

A good number of national and ex-national players are taking part in this game for CDCC club, which is led by former Bangladeshi captain Minhajul Abedin, also a popular local figure in this port city.

Winning the toss CDCC sent their opponent to bat first, which looked a good decision as Zimbabwe lost three of their top-order batsmen for only 30 in 13 overs, including the precious one of Andy Flower.

The first wicket fell at 2 when Gripper edged a catch to wicket keeper off young Tareq Aziz. Ebrahim was run out from a direct mid-wicket throw when the board showed 23 as a Zimbabwean total.

Runs were coming slow for the tourists as the pacers were dominating on the track pitching the ball off the seam that took occasional turns. The big blow came to little Andy Flower as he saw his stumps gone little after Ebrahim's departure. He attempted to play Tareq Aziz across the bat, but the ball took an inner edge and shuttered his off-stump. Andy left Zimbabwe reeling at 29 for3.

Shabbir Khan got Stewart Carlisle for 21 and Shafiuddin Babu clean bowled Craig Wishart and Zimbabwe were 49 for 5. After that a good partnership formed between Ervin and Marillier as they began to take on the bowlers comfortably to take the score to 126 after 37 overs. Both batsmen arranged their innings with some spectacular boundaries. Ervin sent a Shabbir Khan delivery to the mid-wicket fence to score the first six of the day.

Sanwar was bowling at tight length from one end and soon saw the success sending back Marillier for 40. The batsman tried an ambitious shot to widish long off only to offer a catch.

Ervin made 56, the highest score for Zimbabwe. The next three wickets fell quickly and Zimbabwe were no longer hoping to pile up a big score. At that point it looked they could hardly play full fifty overs.

Zimbabwe managed a meager 162 all out playing 45 overs. Ehsan captured three wickets where Tareq Aziz got two.

Bangladesh lost the early wicket of Anisul Hakim as the right-hander offered a catch to second slip deceived by a rising delivery from Friend. Azam Iqbal departed soon bagging only 10 runs and Ehsanul Haq followed him with 15.

Much was depending on Sanwar Hossain, who made a good comeback in the national squad after his brilliant performance in India for Bangladesh-A; but the batsman failed to make any mark with the bat as he was dismissed for 1. When these top-order batsmen returned leaving their team reeling, the skipper Minhajul Abedin came to bat with thunderous applause behind him.

Minhajul and Masum batted carefully looking forward to forming a partnership between them. While Minhajul was chipping in with singles and twos, Masum was opting to go for occasional boundaries.

Minhajul gave return catch to Paul Strang, which the leggie took comfortably. Shabbir Khan made a handy contribution with the bat as he made 20 that featured 3 boundaries.

Masum, from one end was fighting alone. CDCC needed 17 runs from the last two overs, but could manage only 3 with the loss of their last three batsmen including the wicket of Masum. The tall batsman top-scored with 59.

Friend captures 3 for 21 where Nkala and Ervine shared two wickets each.