BCB look down the barrel
Pallab Bhattacharaya, New Delhi
Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) Eleven were spared the embarrassment of following on but their agony in the second Duleep Trophy match against Central Zone mounted on the penultimate day at the Karnail Singh Stadium yesterday.The tourists were dismissed for 146 in their first innings in reply to Central's 351, but home captain Jai Prakash Yadav chose not to ask Mohammad Ashraful's boys to bat again. Yadav was happy with the first-innings lead since it guaranteed his side a place in the final of the Indian premier first-class competition after outright win over East Zone in the previous round. Having secured a big first-innings lead of 205, Central then stroked their way to 212-6, an overall lead of 417, in their second essay at close of Day Three with Sanjay Bangar hitting an unbeaten 91. Yadav is likely to declare the innings once Bangar, a Test discard, completes his century today and then have a crack at the touring batsmen on a weary fourth day wicket. The only highlight for the visitors on the day was a five-wicket haul by medium pacer Aftab Ahmed. The young right-hander from Chittagong, whose bowling prowess was noticed during the second one-day international against New Zealand at Dhaka last year, sparked a Central top-order collapse with his military medium after Bangar and Devendra Bundela produced 76 runs for the second wicket. Bundela followed up his first-innings 83 with an impressive 53 but his dismissal at the score of 97 saw Central collapse to 105-5 with Aftab taking all the four wickets. The hosts lost three wickets -- first innings centurion Abbas Ali, Yadav and wicketkeeper-batsman Naman Ojha -- at the score of 103 to Aftab, who then dismissed Doru (29) to finish the day with 5-28 in 18 overs. Earlier, Bangladesh, resuming on 117 for six in the morning, could add just 29 more runs before being bowled out. Shalabh Srivastava was instrumental in polishing off the visitors, taking four for 33. Manzarul Islam, who had stood tall in the ruins, took his personal score to 47 before falling to medium pacer Harvinder Singh. Srivatsava accounted for the other three batsmen to go in the first session. Bangladesh dealt Central Zone an early blow in their second innings as opener Amit Pagnis was out for 15 with just 21 on the home team's scoreboard.
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