While the Motijheel outfit fought hard to secure their second successive win, their traditional rivals Abahani maintained their winning run when they dispatched Victoria Sporting Club by five wickets at BKSP.

In the day's other match, Biman recovered from their first round defeat when they registered a 53-run win against Brothers Union at the Fatullah Cricket Stadium.

MOHAMMEDAN-CITY
The result definitely portrays a thrilling match at Mirpur when Mohammedan lost eight wickets to chase down City Club's total of 172 with just four balls to spare, thanks to a useful all-round performance by out-of-favour Tapash Baisya.

It was poor cricket all around not only because of mediocre performances but also due to dubious umpiring, especially the way Shawkatur Rahman ruled out some City Club appeals in the afternoon.

What seemed to be an easy task for Mohammedan got complicated as Tareq Aziz did not let go without a fight when the right-arm paceman scalped the first three Mohammedan batsmen including danger man Aftab Ahmed. In-form Aftab skied the ball to give the ex-national cricketer a simple return catch with the scoreboard reading 48-2 in the 11th over.

They lost two more wickets in quick succession before wicketkeeper Sahagir Hossain joined captain Habibul Bashar to steady the ship with a 46-run association for the sixth wicket.

When Bashar was bowled by left-arm spinner Zakir Hossain for 30 off 62 balls, Mohammedan were 46 runs short of target. Man-of-the-match Tapash struggled in the middle but his 57-ball 23 and a 34-run partnership with Sahagir (32 off 53 deliveries) for the seventh wicket ensured victory.

But it could have been a different story had City skipper Shahriar Nafees managed to dislodge the stumps at the non-striking end to send Sakib Al Hasan (13) back with Mohammedan on 59-4.

National vice-captain Nafees had not only earlier missed another chance at mid-on to let Zunaed Siddiqe (26) off the hook but also should be held responsible for his team's poor fielding effort in defense of a fragile total.

The left-hander also continued lean-patch with the bat in the domestic scene scoring only one after City Club were sent in. Mustafizur Rahman top scored with 46 off 70 balls.

Tapash was the pick of Mohammedan attack with four wickets for 38.

ABAHANI-VICTORIA
Victoria surprisingly opted to bat against all odds, defying the early morning conditions, and the Abahani seamers made no mistake to fire on all cylinders, wrapping up their opponents for 188 in 44.2 overs in the curtailed 48-overs a-side encounter.

Mashrafee-bin-Mortuza captured two and Mohammad Shahajada three wickets as Victoria were reduced to 79-5 before Wasel Uddin (39) and Pakistani Jafar Quraishi (56) repaired the damage with a 68-run stand for the sixth wicket.

Spinner Sohrawardi Shuvo then rattled the tail with impressive figures of 4-11 from 4.2 overs.

Pakistani recruit Imran Abbas, who frustrated in the first match, slammed an unbeaten 57 after Nazmus Sadat (36) and Zahurul Islam (45) laid the foundation with a 66-run opening stand as Abahani posted 189-5 in 43.5 overs.

Abahani, however, will miss Manzarul Islam in the next few matches as the all-rounder picked up an injury while fielding. The left-arm spinner, second in the injury list after Khaled Mashud being ruled out for ten days, had a damaged knee and is likely to be out of action for two weeks.

BIMAN-BROTHERS
Sparkling batting by the top three Javed Omar, Raqibul Hasan and Jahur Elahi guided the inserted Biman to set a challenging total of 267-9.

Man-of-the-match Raqibul, who smashed a 111-ball 87 that saw seven fours and a six, shared in two hundred-run partnerships with Javed (38 off 82 balls) and Jahur (84 off 81 balls) before the remaining batsmen produced a telephone number.

Hannan Sarkar (51 off 67 balls) and Imran Ahmed (72 off 117 balls) shared an 89-run second wicket partnership but it was not good enough for Brothers to avoid their second loss in a row as they finished their 50-over quota for 214-9.