818 runs- 48 sixes, 70 fours: Bizarre run-fest in a second-division domestic 50-over match in Bangladesh

Bangladesh domestic cricket has always been under the scanner after having racked up headlines for all the wrong reasons. But, on Monday, it stormed back into the headlines thanks to a bizarre run-fest during a Bangladesh second-division fifty-over fixture where a whopping 48 sixes and 70 fours were hit in a run-fest that saw both sides accumulate a total of 818 runs.

The game was played between North Bengal Cricket Academy and Talent Hunt Cricket Academy in Dhaka on Monday, Batting first, the North Bengal Cricket Academy racked up a mammoth 432 runs [4-432] in fifty overs- an innings which included 27 sixes. Chasing an improbable target of 433, the Talent Hunt Cricket Academy came out all guns blazing and made a decent fist of the mountain that was 433 but eventually fell short by 46 runs, finishing with 7-386 which also included a jaw-dropping 21 sixes.

Syed Ali Asad, a club cricket organizer, has seen a plethora of cricket during his time as a club cricket organizer in Dhaka. He too was perplexed by the number of runs that were scored in the game. According to Asad, he has never seen anything of this proportion ever before in domestic matches. “This is very unusual. I have been familiar with Dhaka’s domestic cricket for many years. But I never saw anything like this,” said Syed Ali Asaf as quoted by Hindustan Times.

Bangladesh’s domestic matches marred by spot-fixing and other corruption issues

Back in 2017, a Lalmatia bowler was handed a ban of ten years after he bowled wides and no-balls on purpose in order to give away the run-chase of 88 runs on a silver platter to the opposition. Defending 88, the bowler bowled 13 wides and three no-balls in his very first 0ver. All the balls proceeded to go past the boundary and the opposition- Axiom- 0-92- nailed the target in four deliveries. 

Back in October last year, former captain and star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan created a furor when he claimed that all the results of domestic matches were predetermined. In-fact Bangladesh Cricket Board [BCB] chairman Saber Hossain Chowdhury echoed Shakib’s claims and agreed that there was “deep-rooted” corruption in domestic cricket.