ACS Overseas First-Class Annual 2020

60 Bangladesh in 2019/20 In the former, it was gratifying that as many as six matches out of the twelve in each tier ended in a definite result. In Tier 1, the title came down to the last match of the season, between Khulna Division and last season’s promoted side Dhaka Division. Khulna had led the way all season, but a win for Dhaka would have seen them take the honours at the last. But all speculation came to nothing when Khulna took victory by nine wickets, thanks to an innings of 150* by their captain Nurul Hasan and five-fors by medium-pacer Abdul Halim in the first innings and by fast-medium Ziaur Rahman in the second. The relegation place was also decided by the last match, in which Rangpur Division’s 155-run victory over Rajshahi Division sent the latter down to Tier 2 for 2020/21, with their place in Tier 1 being taken by Sylhet Division who rose from the foot of Tier 2 in 2018/19 to the top in 2019/20.  The Bangladesh Cricket League was this year played as a single round-robin, plus a final between the top two teams. In the round robin, East Zone won two of their three matches but lost the other by ten wickets, to South Zone. Those two met again in the final, in which South again emerged victorious, their 105-run win giving them the title for the third year in a row. Statistical highlight of the competition was the innings of 334* by Tamim Iqbal for East Zone v North Zone – the highest first-class score ever made by a Bangladeshi. Had he been able to play in later matches in the event, the outcome might have been very different.  In all first-class matches, the leading runscorer was former Test player Anamul Haque of Khulna Division and South Zone, who passed 500 runs in each competition but still did not find a place in any of Bangladesh’s Test XIs. His overall tally of 1007 runs at 77.46 was over 200 more than any other player. Another former Test player, Abdul Razzak, also of Khulna and South Zone, topped the wicket-takers’ list for the fourth time in the past six seasons, his slow left-armers bringing him 53 wickets at 23.79. Second place went to off-spinner Nayeem Hasan of Chittagong Division, East Zone and the Test side, with 44 wickets; no other bowler took more than 31. (KSW) National Cricket League 2019/20: Final tables Tier 1 P W L D BatBP BowBP Pts 8 0 2 1 Khulna Division 6 3 0 3 1.81 8.0 39.81 2 Dhaka Division 6 1 1 4 2.39 6.0 24.39 3 Rangpur Division 6 1 2 3 0.96 6.5 21.46 4 Rajshahi Division 6 1 3 2 0.15 6.5 18.65 Tier 2 P W L D BatBP BowBP Pts 8 0 2 1 Sylhet Division 6 3 2 1 2.04 8.0 36.04 2 Dhaka Metropolis 6 1 1 4 3.29 6.5 25.79 3 Barisal Division 6 1 1 4 1.85 3.5 21.35 4 Chittagong Division 6 1 2 3 0.42 6.5 20.92 Bangladesh Cricket League 2019/20: Final table P W L D BP BatBP BowBP Pts 8 0 2 1 East Zone 3 2 1 0 1 2.47 4.0 23.47 2 South Zone 3 1 0 2 1 2.39 4.5 19.89 3 Central Zone 3 1 1 1 0 0.00 1.5 11.50 4 North Zone 3 0 2 1 0 0.22 4.0 6.22 FINAL: South Zone beat East Zone by 105 runs