ACS Overseas FIrst-Class Annual 2012

Bangladesh in 2011/12 Despite occasional glimmers of hope, Bangladesh continued to struggle to establish convincing credentials as a Test nation. At the end of the 2011/12 season, the team remained a distant ninth out of nine in the ICC Test rankings; and even more worrying, appeared to be saved from being tenth out of ten only by the fact that Zimbabwe had played too few matches to qualify. Indeed, it fell to Bangladesh to welcome Zimbabwe back to the fold with a one-off Test in Harare in August 2011 (see ‘Matches in 2011’) and in 2011/12 this was followed by two home series of two Tests each against West Indies and Pakistan. In the First Test against West Indies, Bangladesh built up a strong position before rain and poor drainage condemned the match to a draw. But all the other Tests ended in defeats, mostly by heavy margins. Bangladesh’s supporters were left to draw what consolation they could from individual performances such as Elias Sunny’s 6-94 on debut against West Indies, and Shakib Al Hasan’s 144 against a Pakistan attack including England’s later tormentors Abdur Rehman and Saeed Ajmal. Domestically, the Walton National Cricket League was contested by eight teams instead of six: Dhaka Metropolis was carved out of Dhaka Division and Rangpur Division was also added. In the initial round-robin league, Khulna, Dhaka Metropolis, Sylhet and Rajshahi occupied the first four places and progressed to the next phase in which they played each other a second time with their points being added to those already secured in the first phase. Khulna retained its place at the head of the table but Rajshahi, fourth in the first phase, came through strongly to finish as runner-up. Rajshahi maintained this good form to defeat Khulna comfortably in the final and claim the title for the fourth consecutive year. The progress of the League had been seriously disrupted when the final two matches of the second phase, which had been due to start on 24 December, were abruptly postponed to accommodate a limited-overs tournament. These matches, and the final, were eventually played in April after a four-month hiatus. National Cricket League 2011/12: First Phase table P W L DWF DLF ND BatBP BowBP Pts NetRR 8 0 4 2 3 1 Khulna Division 7 5 1 0 1 0 13.84 25 80.84 -0.237 2 Dhaka Metropolis 7 5 2 0 0 0 13.46 26 79.46 0.283 3 Sylhet Division 7 4 2 1 0 0 17.28 25 78.28 -0.204 4 Rajshahi Division 7 5 2 0 0 0 8.98 25 73.98 0.343 5 Chittagong Division 7 3 4 0 0 0 12.06 25 61.06 0.072 6 Rangpur Division 7 2 3 0 1 1 11.6 23 55.60 -0.369 7 Barisal Division 7 1 5 0 0 1 8.76 24.5 44.26 0.251 8 Dhaka Division 7 0 6 1 0 0 3.52 28 35.52 -0.085 National Cricket League 2011/12: Second Phase table P W L DWF DLF ND BatBP BowBP Pts NetRR 8 0 4 2 3 1 Khulna Division 10 6 1 2 1 0 20.84 36 114.84 -0.108 2 Rajshahi Division 10 7 3 0 0 0 16.98 37 109.98 0.282 3 Sylhet Division 10 4 3 2 1 0 24.04 34.5 100.54 -0.236 4 Dhaka Metropolis 10 5 3 0 2 0 17.22 33.5 94.72 0.192 FINAL: RAJSHAHI DIVISION beat Khulna Division by nine wickets. 73