Mosaddek heroics help Abahani clinch thriller

Mosaddek Hossain's late-overs heroics gave Abahani Limited a crucial three-wicket win over Prime Doleshwar Sporting Club at BKSP-3 in Savar, but an umpiring decision late in the game marred the thrill of the contest.

With ten runs required off the last three balls of the match, Mosaddek squeezed the ball to sweeper cover, but the throw wasn't collected cleanly by Doleshwar wicketkeeper Rony Talukdar. Mosaddek and Taskin Ahmed were involved in a mix-up while trying to pinch a second run. While Taskin tried to complete it, Farhad Reza, the bowler, broke the stumps at the non-striker's end with the batsman still a foot outside the crease. But umpire Rezwan Parvez was unmoved amid huge appeals from Doleshwar fielders. After the umpire had given it not out, Doleshwar's players spoke to him but to no avail. The rest simply looked crestfallen from the boundary edge, with hands going on head and hips.

With Abahani needing eight off two balls, Mosaddek struck Farhad's full toss sweetly over long-on before smashing him over cover for the match-winning boundary. Abahani's players were jubilant, even as their supporters made lewd gestures towards the bemused Doleshwar players.

Mosaddek timed his unbeaten 35-ball 57 to near-perfection despite wickets falling at the other end in their chase of 192. He was quiet during his 27-run stand with Rajat Bhatia before finding his seven boundaries, mainly on the off-side, as the Doleshwar bowlers got fuller as the match progressed. Two sixes apart, there were hardly any traces of the lofted hits.

Mosaddek arrived at the crease following Shakib Al Hasan's dismissal in the 19th over. Batting on 40, Shakib missed Ashok Menaria's delivery as Talukdar fumbled before breaking the stumps to have him stumped.

The game began at 1:00pm, four hours after the scheduled start, due to heavy rain. But it was a see-saw contest from when Doleshwar slipped to 58 for four in the 11th over. Nasir Hossain blasted a 56-ball 72 from that point, hitting four boundaries and two towering sixes. He added 82 runs for the fifth wicket with Sunzamul Islam before another quickfire 25 with Reza. Ziaur Rahman closed out the innings with a six and a four in his 11-ball 18.

Abahani dropped four catches including one where Mohammad Shahzada crashed into his captain Tamim Iqbal who had almost completed the skier offered by Nasir. Abahani too lost early wickets as Tamim was caught well at mid-off and Liton Das at long-on. Nazmul Hossain Shanto and Shakib added 74 runs for the third wicket, which put the impetus into their chase.