South Zone emerge BCL champions

Sports Live: BCB South Zone regained the Bangladesh Cricket League title after they defeated BCB Central Zone by an innings and 33 runs in the final at the Sheikh Kamal International Cricket Stadium in Cox’s Bazar on Tuesday.
 
Pacer Khaled Ahmed claimed 5-74 to complete his 100th first-class wicket haul while left-arm spinner Nazmul Islam and off-spinner Moin Khan took three and two wickets respectively as South Zone bowled Central Zone all out for 237 runs in the second innings to clinch their sixth BCL title on the final day.
 
The last time South Zone won the tournament was back in the 2019-20 season. Resuming an overnight score of 64-3, the defending champions Central Zone lost their batsmen Jaker Ali (23) and Mohammad Mithun (49) early on the day while they continued to lose wickets at regular intervals to get reduced to 90-7.
 
Sharifullah and Abu Hider then shared a 121-run stand for the eighth wicket to raise the prospect of avoiding an innings defeat but Khaled broke the partnership by removing the former after he made 63 runs.
 
Khaled then dismissed Hider on 77 runs to complete his fifth five-wicket haul in first-class cricket and also wrap up the match South Zone declared their first innings at 500-5 after Shadman Islam struck a double hundred while Marshall Ayub made an unbeaten century.
 
Central Zone then made only 233 runs in their first innings and South Zone inflicted them follow-on. Shadman Islam was adjudged player of the final while Jaker was named player of the tournament.
 
Jaker finished with the highest 492 runs in the tournament while Nazmul took the most number of 19 wickets during the 10th edition of BCL.

Dhaka, 07 March (campuslive24.com)//BSC