ULAB make dream final

University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh progressed to the final of the Red Bull Campus Cricket after beating University of Central Punjab, Lahore by two wickets at Galle International Stadium, Sri Lanka on Saturday. ULAB will face Business Management School of Sri Lanka in the final on Sunday. With three runs needed off the final over, Maraj Niloy fell leg-before to Ali Sultan but next ball, Morsalin Mortaza struck the winning runs when his single turned into five runs through an over-throw. Opener and captain Hasanuzzaman had given ULAB a blazing start with 35 runs off 17 balls before Niloy's 28 from 23 balls got them very close to the 153-run target. Mohammad Mohsin, Aftab Azwer and skipper Ali Sultan shared six wickets between themselves. Earlier, UCP made 152/8 from their 20 overs with opening batsman Tayab Tahir top-scoring with a 41-ball 60, featuring 10 fours. Wicketkeeper-batsman Junaid Ali and Asfand Mehran provided valuable support, scoring 30 and 24 respectively. ULAB's Mahbubur Rahman picked up three wickets while Arifur Rahman bagged two. Arifur is now the tournament's highest wicket-taker with 10 scalps from four matches. En route to the semi-finals, ULAB defeated University of Sydney, Australia by 10 wickets, lost to Loughborough University, England by 25 runs before winning their final group stage match against Assupol Tuks Cricket, University of Pretoria, South Africa by one wicket. ULAB, reigning Twenty20 private university champion of Bangladesh, were invited by the tournament organisers as they earlier participated in the same tournament twice in Sri Lanka and England previously. This is the third time ULAB are taking part in the Red Bull Campus Cricket.BRIEF SCOREUniversity of Central Punjab, Lahore 152/8 (Tayab 60, Junaid 30, Mehran 24, Mahbubur 3/14, Arifur 2/30) lost to University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh 155/8 (Hasanuzzaman 35, Niloy 28, Mitra 22, Mohsin 2/9, Aftab 2/32) by two wickets