Opener Imran took his overnight score to 177 and Arafat remained not out on 101 as Barisal coasted to 418-8 at stumps, still a huge 204 runs behind from Chittagong's record-breaking 622-8 dec, after resuming the day on 156-3.

Away at the Fatullah Cricket Stadium, the table-toppers clash looks all set for a close finish on the final day although Dhaka were in a better position after taking an overall lead of 268 before stumps were drawn for the third day with three second inning wickets in hand against Khaled Mashud's Rajshahi in an incident-packed third day.

On the other hand Sylhet smelled victory against Khulna when they reduced the home team to 87-5 in their second innings after being set a winning target of 211 at the Khulna Divisional Stadium.

CHITTAGONG-BARISAL
This round already saw seven tons after Imran and Arafat achieved the three digit figures to at least keep Barisal hopes alive of drawing the match against the home team.

Resuming the day on 156-3, the visitors lost two more wickets within the space of 30 runs before Arafat joined Imran to plot a rescue act during a 156-run sixth wicket stand.

Imran, who started the day on 75, made 177 runs off 349 balls with the help of 30 boundaries while Arafat struck 16 fours to make an unbeaten 101 off 229 balls.

Spinner Sabbir Khan was most successful local bowler with four for 127.

DHAKA-RAJSHAHI
Two overnight batsmen Mushfiqur Rahman and Forhad Reza converted their scores to fifties but it was not good enough for Rajshahi to take a first innings lead against Dhaka in the crucial encounter.

League leaders Rajshahi conceded a 65-run first innings lead when they were all out for 292 after resuming the day on 201-6 in reply to Dhaka's 357.

Mushfiqur scored team highest 73 off 153 balls with the help of 12 fours while Forhad contributed 55 off 103 balls that featured eight boundaries.

Dhaka extended their lead to 268 when they scored 203-7 in their second essay with first innings century maker Anwar Hossain scoring highest 54.

SYLHET-KHULNA
Khulna left-arm spinner Humayun Kabir returned with match figures of ten wickets as he claimed five wickets for 48 to wrap up the Sylhet second innings for 181 runs.

But his effort was not good enough after his team fell in big trouble in the second innings capitulating to 87-5 after being set 211 to win. Imtiaz Hossain was top scorer in Sylhet's second essay making 60 runs off 76 balls that saw six fours and a six.