Dropped on nine, Mahmud smashed an unbeaten 71 off 66 balls as the defending champions -- chasing a huge 279-7 -- snatched a scintillating two-wicket victory with 20 deliveries to spare at the Dhanmondi Cricket Stadium.

Mahmud's performance overshadowed a chanceless 102 off 82 balls by Brothers youngster Marshall Ayub, who scored the third hundred in the league after teammate Rashed Hanif and City Club's Shahriar Nafees.

DOHS's 11th win in 12 games gave them a six-point cushion atop the table after nearest contenders Victoria Sporting Club crashed to their second successive loss to Sonargaon Cricketers at the Fatullah Stadium.

Mohammedan Sporting Club, who handed Bangladesh Biman a 13-run defeat at BKSP, joined Victoria and Sonargaon at the second place with all three teams level on 16 points.

DOHS-BROTHERS
Brothers Union, the Super Six bottom-side who have no stake in the title race, got off to a decent start after electing to bat. National opener Nafees Iqbal made a 55-ball 42 while prolific run-getter Rashed Hanif of Pakistan made 61 off 83 deliveries but it was Ayub who dictated the terms coming in at number five.

Brothers' run-rate was exactly four when Ayub, a standby in the national under-19 squad for the Youth World Cup in Sri Lanka, came to the wicket. Pairing with Hanif, the 18-year-old right-hander from Barisal took the score to 222 from 88-3 before the Pakistani was dismissed by left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak, who was the pick of the DOHS attack with 5-68 from ten overs.

Ayub, ignored by the team management early in the season, began where he had left off in the previous round when he scored a match winning 41 not out against Mohammedan and hammered six fours and four sixes in a matured knock. He whacked Razzak three times out of the ropes including two in successive balls and completed his hundred in the final over of the innings before offering a return catch to Mahmud in the penultimate ball.

DOHS, in a bid to maintain a high asking run-rate, lost wickets at regular intervals and were staring at a defeat when they were reduced to 185-7 at the start of the 36th over. The league's top run scorer Steve Tikolo (41 off 39 balls), skipper Akram Khan (4), Manjarul Islam (29) and Mahmudullah Riyad (2) departed in the space of 54 runs but Brothers did not put enough pressure on the opposition at this stage.

Even captain Ehsanul Haque, taking the ball at a crucial stage, bowled four wide-balls in the 45th over, conceding 13 runs. To say least about sloppy fielding by almost every one and 31 wides conceded, the skipper also did not use full quotas of his most economic bowlers, Enamul Haque (2-33 from 8.4 overs) and Hanif (2-29 from 7 overs).

Mahmud, however, never looked back after left-arm spinner Arafat Sunny dropped the former national captain's skied return catch. The man-of-the-match shared a significant stand, 92 with Razzak (24 off 27 balls), before cantering the side home with his ninth boundary.

MSC-BIMAN
Mohammedan and national captain Habibul Bashar finally ended his lean patch in the ongoing league with a patient 85 not out as Mohammedan scored 246 for four after being put into bat. Man-of-the-match Bashar, whose 127-ball essay featured half a dozen fours, shared 141 runs with in-form Hannan Sarkar (79 off 121 balls) after they were reduced to 18-2.

Khaled Mashud also put an end to his miserable run with the bat, contributing an explosive 31-ball 45 studded with three fours and one six.

Despite losing an early wicket, Nazmus Sadat's quickfire 48 and half-centuries by Shahriar Hossain (67 off 86 balls) and Javed Omar (62 off 99 balls) kept Biman in the game. They past the 150-mark in the 35th over but choked under the pressure of a 7.6-run asking rate in the last ten overs, finishing on 233-6.

SONARGAON-VICTORIA
A change in the captaincy has brought good luck for newcomers Sonargaon Cricketers. Since taking over the charge from Al Shahriar, Mohammad Ashraful has not lost a single match. And his predecessor has hardly failed with the bat.

The luck and performance mingled together as Sonargaon, who had confirmed their Super Six berth defeating a high-flying Victoria in the last match of the first leg, repeated the same feat against the same team with a thrilling seven-run win.

Opener Shahriar made 67 with nine fours and one six from 83 balls while Anisur Rahman Sanchay made a sedate 110-ball 63 before Mohammad Rafique's cameo 44 off 49 deliveries helped them reach 252-9 in 50 overs.

Victoria recovered from a poor start with Nasiruddin Faruque's 52 (62 balls) and Pakistani Jaffer Quraishi's 57 (67 balls) but their efforts were not enough as they were bundled out for 245 in the 43rd over. Quraishi, who also captured three wickets, was adjudged man-of-the-match.