The Dhaka captain, who did not bowl in the first innings due to pain in his left shoulder, took five wickets to send Rajshahi crashing to 179 in their second innings.

Set a victory target of 185 with two more days in hand, Dhaka were 18 for no loss at stumps.

The visitors need a further 167 runs for their first outright victory after two draws at home.

When bowlers dictated terms at Bogra, batters flourished at the Barisal Divisional Stadium, where home opener Nasiruddin Faruque slammed a century to guide his side to 282-5 against Sylhet, who were dismissed for 202 on the first day on Friday.

At the Chittagong Divisional Stadium, the hosts piled up 461. But Khulna, in their chase, were in danger of following-on after they had slumped to 68-4 at close of the day's play.

DHAKA-RAJSHAHI
Bogra certainly turned out to be bowlers' paradise when Mahmud became the third medium-pacer to take a five-wicket haul after Alamgir Kabir and Sumon Shaha did it for Khulna.

Alamgir added another wicket to his overnight figures of 4-33 while Sumon finished with 5-40 as Dhaka, resuming the day on 107-5, were bowled our for 135, giving Rajshahi a first-innings lead of five runs.

But at the end of the day, Dhaka emerged on top with Mahmud starting the carnage by removing opener Zahirul Islam for a duck.

Soon Rajshahi collapsed to 53-6 before Hasanuzzaman, captaining Rajshahi in the absence of suspended skipper Khaled Mashud, gave the innings some respectability with a 121-ball 67.

Mahmud finished with five for 50 in 22.4 overs while his young partner Dipojjal Roy, who captured two wickets in the first innings, took three for 31.

Openers Rashedul Haque (6) and Anwar Hossain (10) safely ended the day for Dhaka.

CHITTAGONG-KHULNA
Ehsanul Haque took his overnight 107 to 132 while Mohammad Rabbi (59) and Habib Moballek (46) made useful contributions down the order as Chittagong, resuming the day on 327-5, added another 134 runs before being all out before tea.

Chasing a huge total, Khulna, without their inspirational captain and Bangladesh skipper Habibul Bashar, lost wickets at regular intervals. They were tottering at 86-4 after the Chittagong new-ball pair of Gazi Alamgir (2-12) and Moballek (2-23) bowled with venom under fading lights.

Monirul Islam was batting on 27 and Jamaluddin remained not out on 19 when bails were drawn for the day.

BARISAL-SYLHET
Nasiruddin Faruque hit an unbeaten 133 as Barisal got off to a flying start in their chase for an outright victory.

After losing his opening partner Tariqul Islam in the very second over, Nasiruddin repaired the innings, putting on 94 runs for the second wicket with Imran Ahmed, who fell for one run short of his fifty.

Nasiruddin then added 141 runs for the fourth wicket with Shaheen Hossain, the first cricketer to score 300 runs this season. Wicketkeeper Shaheen hammered 68 off 112 balls with the help of 13 boundaries.

Nasiruddin struck 21 boundaries during his six-hour vigil.

Nabil Samad captured three wickets for 80 runs in 32 overs.