Islami Bank East Zone finished the second day of all important title deciding match of the Bangladesh Cricket League against Prime Bank South Zone with 159-3, replying to 385 runs at Chittagong on Monday.
In the other match at Mirpur, Walton Central Zone were 21-2 in their second innings at stumps after they achieved a slender lead of two runs against BCB North Zone in the first innings.
At Chittagong, resuming on 272-2, Prime lost their last eight wickets for just 100 runs with both overnight batsmen Mohammad Mithun and Shahriar Nafees falling short of a century.
Mithun, unbeaten on 88 overnight, fell for 95 while Shahriar could add just 18 runs to his bedtime total before being dismissed for 96.
Veteran Abdur Razzak made some onslaught with a 35-run innings off 38 balls after the middle order batsmen including Test player Soumya Sarkar failed.
Soumya was bowled by Nazmul Opu for a duck in the second ball he faced.
Opu and Abul Hasan both picked up three wickets each for Islami Bank while Ahmed Sadiqur got two wickets. Kamrul Islam and Alok Kapali grabbed one wicket apiece.
In reply, Shadman Islam and Liton Das made a solid start with a partnership of 74 before Liton was out for 38.
However, Shadman remained not out on 86 with 13 boundaries despite losing Test batsman Mominul Haque for just four runs and former Test cricketer Rajin Saleh for three.
Alok Kapali was not out on 18 with Shadman.
Sohag Gazi picked up two wickets for Prime, who will be crowned champions if the match ends in a draw.
In Dhaka, resuming on 278-8, Walton lost last two wickets for just 11 runs to be dismissed for 289 runs.
Taijul Islam of BCB North Zone picked up one of the last two wickets to return with a figure of 5-113.
In reply, North Zone lost wickets in regular intervals to stutter 99-5 at one stage before Sabbir Rahman and Forhad Hossain made a partnership of 92 runs.
Sabbir made 75 runs off just 84 balls with 11 boundaries and one six while Farhad scored 67 runs off 133 balls with the help of eight fours.
Muktar Ali scored 42 runs down the order to give BCB outfit some hopes for a lead before he was dismissed by Shuvagata Hom.
Shuvagata, who represented Bangladesh Test side, later claimed the wicket of last batsman Farhad to complete his only third five-wicket haul to finish with 5-78.
Shahidul Islam ably supported him with an impressive figure of 4-55.
Central Zone faced 12 overs in the final session when they lost Rony Talukdar for a golden duck and Roqibul Hassan for seven.
Opener Abdul Majid was not out on 10 runs with the first Innings’ centurion Mahmudullah unbeaten on four.