Brilliant bowling from three tweakers--Ehsanul Haque, Reaz Ahmed and debutant Imran Rahim -- gave Brothers Union their fifth win in the Janakantha Premier Division Cricket League. They comfortably defeated new powerhouse Surjo Tarun by 66 runs at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday.
With the victory, the Gopibagh outfit, who finished second in the elite league last season, joined leaders Biman and defending champions Abahani at the top of the 12-team table with 10 points. However, if Biman, who have one match in hand with an unbeaten record, can defeat Kalabagan in their sixth match which begins today, they will go up by two points. Both Brothers and Abahani have played six matches so far.
On the other hand, the defeat almost threw away star-studded Surjo Tarun out of the title race with their second defeat in six matches. They are now jointly sharing the third spot along with Kalabagan and Mohammedan Sporting.
Back to the match, Surjo Tarun, who were chasing a respectable Brothers Union total of 266 in 80 overs, failed to rise to the occasion and were shot out in the face of some deadly spin from Ehsan, Imran and Reaz, who shared seven wickets. Specially it was a day to be remembered by the young left-arm spinner Imran Rahim who returned with excellent figures of 15-2-23-2 on his very first appearance in the Premier league. His two victims were national all-rounder Enamul Haque (1) and wicketkeeper Khaled Masood (2).
He was ably helped by offee Ehsanul Haque and left-arm spinner Reaz Ahmed, who captured three and two wickets respectively conceding 31 and 23 runs.
Surjo Tarun, who defeated Kalabagan Krira Chakra by one run in their previous match, got off to a flying start with 40 runs coming from 10 overs.
The score remained unchanged when Athar Ali gave a simple catch to Ehsan at the point. The discarded national opener, who scored 12 off 39 balls, tried to drive Pakistan seamer Amir Hanif through the cover but missed the line and the ball hit the outer edge of his bat before deflecting towards the point region.
The other opener Parvez Ahmed, after scoring 19 off 62 balls, apparently thought he had his job done when Surjo Tarun were on 65 in the 22nd over. The tall right-hander paid the price of lethargy while trying to take a single off Ehsan. He was run out by a magnificent direct throw from Brothers Union skipper Khaled Mahmud.
Two-down Ridwan Hasan returned in a similar fashion after four overs without scoring any runs. But the blame should go to his senior partner Al-Shahriar, who called Ridwan but then suddenly took a U-turn from the half-way mark, which saw both batsmen standing at the striking end together.
After Ridwan's departure, Sri Lankan Naveed Newaz joined Al-Shahriar and put on 50 runs for the fourth wicket to raise some hopes in the Surjo Tarun dressing room. They took the scoreboard to 136 before lunch. But again it was Al-Shahriar, who threw his wicket in the last ball of the first session. The tall right-hander drove Ehsan to the safe hands of Shahriar Hossain at the long-on fence to throw away the match from a possible winning position.
Skipper Minhazul Abedin then joined Naveed Nawaz as the last recognised batsman and added 37 runs after lunch. But, everything was over when Nawaz, the left-handed Sri Lankan, was caught by Khaled Mahmud at cover off another Ehsan delivery.
Surjo Tarun lost their last five wickets in less than ten overs adding another 27 runs to their total.