Anamul Haque Bijoy, Mohamamd Naim and Afif Hossain each struck a fifty that helped Abahani Limited clinch their fourth Dhaka Premier League title as they beat Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club in the final round of this season's meet at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Saturday.
Anamul and Naim made 72 and 68, respectively, followed by a responsible unbeaten 60 off 53 balls from Afif, who aided the Sky Blues to cruise to 285-6 in 49.2 overs in reply to a competitive 282-7 by the defending champions, Sk. Jamal.
Tanvir Islam and Tanzim Hasan Sakib claimed two wickets each, while Khushdil Shah and Mohammad Saifuddin took one wicket each for Abahani.
For Sk Jamal, skipper Nurul Hasan scored the highest with an unbeaten 89 off 70 balls, and the next highest 53 came from Taibur Rahman.
Abahani took complete command over the tie, accumulating 145 in the opening stand.
Taibur was the campaigner who brought the initial breakthrough for the titlist, removing Naim in 26.2 overs.
Anamul followed his partner’s steps just after an over being caught behind the stumps by Arif Ahmed that lessened the three-time title winners to 149-2 2.
However, the two successive dismissals of Mahmudul Hasan Joy and Jaker Ali for 9 and 21 appeared to be a matter of worry for Abahani.
But all that disappeared with Afif and Mosaddek Hossain forming a 68-run partnership for the fifth wicket before the latter fell to Rasool for a run-a-ball 22.
However, Afif continued and went big guns in the penultimate overs to reach the victory for Abahani.
His tail-ender fellow, Sakib, stood on a 7-ball 12.
After the tie Afif acknowledged that their opening pair had paved their way to their fourth DPL title.
‘It’s a great feeling to become a champion. We were aiming to clinch the title from the very beginning of the tournament. Our openers have given a fine start that paved the way for us,’ said Afif.
Earlier, Sheikh Jamal suffered a massive blow after being sent to bat, losing their top order trio of Saif Hasan, Shykat Ali, and Robiul Islam for a sorry 0, 8, and 5 by Tanvir and Khusdil, respectively, that shortened the side to 16-3 inside the fifth over.
Fazle Mahmud and Taibur Rahman then shared a crucial 81-run stand in the fourth wicket to curb the initial wreck and also stitch the innings together before the former was dismissed by Sakib for 40.
However, Taibur continued his go with the in-coming Nurul Hasan and added 42 runs in the next stand to take the side close to the hundred and fifty mark, bagging his second fifty of the tournament before he gave a catch to Afif by Saifuddin, leaving the side at 1390-4.
Then, riding on Nurul Hasan, Parvez Rassol, and Ziaur Rahman, Sk Jamal posted a challenging total.
