Five-day BCL final begins today

The final of the Bangladesh Cricket League, a franchise-based first-class cricket tournament, gets underway from Sunday at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, Mirpur.

Walton Central Zone and BCB South Zone will lock horns in the final after these two sides finished at the top of the points table of this single-league tournament.

The group-stage matches of this tournament were played as four-day matches, but the final will be played as a five-day match.

Central Zone had a forgettable experience at SBNCS in the group-stage match. They lost to East Zone by 10 runs by losing their last nine wickets for only 43 runs.

Central Zone skipper Shuvagata Hom told the media before the final that he wants to end the trophy drought.

“Central Zone has been the better side on pen and paper for last few seasons, but despite being the better side, we have not been able to lift the trophy. We want to end that trophy-drought,” he said.

Abdul Majid, who tested Covid Positive earlier, has come out negative in the last test and will be picked in the 15-men squad of the Central Zone for the final, with Mosaddek Hossain missing out for a side strain.

South Zone’s Towhid Hridoy is the leading run-scorer of the tournament. Against the final’s opposition, he had scored a century in the group-stage match.

Nasum Ahmed, one of the top wicket-takers of the tournament with 16 wickets for South Zone, could also be threatening Central Zone.

On the other hand, Central Zone have seasoned international cricketers of the Bangladesh national team like Soumya Sarkar, Mohammad Mithun, along with promising talents like Hasan Murad.

Only two matches of the ongoing edition of BCL ended in a draw. Four produced results within four days, and with one added day for the final, it is expected that the typical SBNCS wicket will produce some drama in the final to make it more exciting.