UNB, Dhaka :
Facing the improbable task of securing 37 runs from the final 12 balls, a victory seemed unlikely for Fortune Barishal, even with half of their wickets in hand. Still, they achieved it in style, with Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Shoaib Malik striking the ball beyond the boundary.
Barishal stunned the Khulna Tigers, handing them the first defeat of the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) season on Saturday in one of the penultimate games of the Sylhet phase.
Scoring 31 off just 15 balls with three sixes and one four, Mehidy remained unbeaten. Malik was also unbeaten on 41 off just 25 balls with three sixes and one four.
In the 19th over, Mohammad Wasim conceded 19 runs, concluding his quota by giving away 36 runs, despite conceding only 17 runs in the first three overs. In the final over, Dasun Shanaka needed to prevent the opposition from scoring 18 runs, but unfortunately, he couldn’t. Although in his first over before the last one, he only gave away 6 runs, things changed in the last four balls, where he leaked 18 runs.
Khulna batted first in this match and posted 155 for eight, a challenging total given the nature of the wicket in Sylhet. Mohammad Nawaz scored 38, the highest by any Khulna batter. Parvez Hossain Emon, playing his maiden match in this BPL, was right behind him with 33.
For Barishal, Taijul Islam and Shoaib Malik took two wickets each, with Taijul impressively conceding only seven runs in three overs.
In response, Barishal lost Ahmed Shehzad early for a duck. However, they managed to recover from this early setback, with cautious batting by Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar. Both were batting at a strike rate just surpassing 100, and Mushfiqur Rahim also followed their path, batting at a strike rate of 108.
Mehidy and Malik shifted gears for Barishal and, eventually, led the team to victory with two balls to spare. It was the third win for Barishal in six matches they’ve played so far.
