Naeem leads BCB Green forward

All-rounder Naeem Islam gave the selectors ample food for thought before they finalise the squad for the West Indies series with an unbeaten innings of 95 on the opening day of the four-day game at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Monday.
Naeem, who has already caught the attention with a brilliant century in the just-concluded BCB Cup, hit 12 boundaries in his 289-ball marathon innings, leading BCB Green to 254-6 against BCB Red at the stumps.
The most important part of his innings was his grit and great determination that helped the out-of-favour all-rounder to occupy the crease for more than five-and-a-half hours.
He came to the crease at a time when the BCB  Green were already struggling on 19-2 after losing their captain Shahriar Nafees in the very first over  of the game and  one-down Junaed Siddique four overs later.
Paceman Shafiul Islam took both the wickets to give Reds skipper Mushfiqur Rahim a dream start in the game after Shahriar won the toss and asked them to bowl first.
Naeem sensed a disaster when one-down Sahgir Hossain also departed soon having been caught by Imrul Kayes off Rubel Hossain leaving the squad on 23 for three.
Partnering with Naeem in-form Alok Kapali (29) resurrected the innings with a 61-run fourth-wicket stand before Nazmul Islam Apu, mainly playing in the 13 versus 13 game as a back-up player, dismissed Kapali.
Roqibul Hassan joined Naeem to add another 43 runs for the fifth wicket to steady the innings. With initial danger negotiated, Naeem finally found a worthy partner in Academy batman Mominul Hoque.
Momiul, a former BKSP boy, who is also scoring runs consistently at every level over the last one year, put on 126 runs for the sixth wicket with Naeem.
Mominul was finally dismissed by Rubel for 72 runs with Mohammad Ashraful taking the catch.
The left-hander was thought to have been caught by Tamim Iqbal at short cover off Mahmudullah when he was on 53, but the umpire ruled it a bump catch.
Being frustrated Tamim threw the ball onto the ground that resulted in a verbal caution from the umpire. Tamim’s unsavoury act came a day after the BCB briefed the players about on and off the field code of conduct.
Match officials said he would have been certainly punished if there was a match referee in the game. The BCB did not feel it necessary as it was merely a warm-up game.

It is, however, more than a warm up game for players who are vying for a place in the national side for the West Indies series and Naeem had the first shot in this fierce competition.
 ‘Naeem played extremely well and the way he batted showed the true character of him,’ skipper Shahriar later told reporters.
‘He did not give any chance and played an innings that was truly remarkable more so because the amount of ball he had played only showed others how to play the longer version game.’

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