Victory for South Zone and Central Zone

South Zone and Central Zone secured wins in their respective matches in the Independence Cup taking place at Sylhet.

South Zone defeated East Zone by three wickets at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium while Central Zone earned a victory over North Zone by 28 runs at the SICS Academy ground.

A defeat to South Zone ended East Zone’s race to the final as they lost both the matches so far, on the other hand, Central Zone almost secured their place in the final by winning back-to-back matches.

East Zone was sent to bat first and they managed to score 192-8 in 50 overs.

Skipper Imrul Kayes was the top scorer with 69 runs, Irfan Shukkur scored 33 runs.

Tamim Iqbal returned to competitive cricket almost after three months since he returned from Everest Premier League in the midway due to injury, the left-handed opener scored only 9 runs for East Zone in his comeback innings.

A collective effort by the South Zone players earned them a hard-fought win, they scored 193-7 in 45.5 overs.

Mahedi Hasan was the top scorer for South Zone with 37* runs.

Nahidul Islam was judged as the player of the match for his economic bowling of 10-3-17-2 and followed by handy innings of 27 runs.

Central Zone defeated North Zone by 28 runs and moved one step closer to the final.

North Zone won the toss and sent Central Zone to bat first, half-centuries from Abdul Mazid (53) and Mosaddek Hossain (54*) helped Central Zone to post 262-5
in 50 overs.

North Zone managed 234-9 in 50 overs; Mahmudullah played a knock of 43 runs from 59 balls but could not salvage his side.

Naeem Islam was the top scorer for North Zone with 72 runs but despite two half-centuries, Marshal Ayub’s side failed to match the climbing run-rate and finally fell short by 28 runs.