Bogra district team made a flying start by defeating Natore district team by a huge margin of 149 runs in their first match of the Young Tigers U-18 National Cricket Tournament on the back of a century by Riyad Sheikh.

Bogra district team won the toss at the Nawabganj District Stadium in Chapai on Tuesday and decided to bat first. But Bogra was disoriented after losing 4 wickets for just 49 runs due to the failure of the first-row 4 batsmen. Then Riyad Sheikh and Rubayet Hossain put on a 51-run partnership to overcome the team’s initial disaster. After Rubayet returned to the dressing room with 13 individual runs and the team’s 102 runs, Riyad formed another excellent partnership with Mehedi. This partnership took the team to 194 runs. Mehedi was dismissed for 31 runs after giving a valuable partnership of 92 runs. Although the wickets continued to fall at one end, Riyad Sheikh batted hard at the other end of the crease and scored a century. Riyad Sheikh scored 101 runs for 112 runs with 10 fours and 3 sixes. After Riyad’s dismissal, Bogra could not play the full 50 overs despite Golam Rasul’s 35 runs off 25 balls. Bogra’s innings was stopped at 246 runs off 3 balls in 45 overs.

For Natore, Taif took 4 wickets and Rohan took 2 wickets.

Batting for a target of 247 runs, Natore could not last long in front of Bogra’s bowlers. Natore lost the match by losing 8 batsmen for just 47 runs in 21 overs. Natore’s innings was wrapped up for just 97 runs in 38.4 overs. Apart from Taif (44) and Alif (14), no other batsman could reach double figures for the team. Bogra’s Akash and Siam took 3 wickets each, Yakub (2) and Tanvir and Shams Toufiq (1) took 1 wicket each.

Bogra’s opponent in the second match on Wednesday is Rajshahi District. The last match of the group stage is against Pabna District on December 28.

It is worth noting that the 8 districts of Rajshahi Division have been divided into two groups and participated in the tournament. Group-A includes Naogaon, Joypurhat, Sirajganj and Chapainawabganj, Group-B includes Bogra, Natore, Rajshahi and Pabna.