Naeem becomes ‘Man of the Match’ frist ever

BSS, Chattogram :

All-rounder Naeem Islam put his name in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) record book for an unwanted feat.

Naeem’s all-round performance, which included 41 ball-56 and two wickets for just six runs steered Chittagong Kings to a massive 111-run victory over Durbar Rajshahi.

The fifty was his first after 4,364 days, meaning he hit a half-century in BPL after almost 12 years. Indeed he got his last fifty in February 2013, during the second edition of BPL.

This is the highest gap in terms of days between the two half-century knocks by a batter in the premier domestic T20 tournament in the country. Naeem was adjudged the Man of the Match.

Coincidentally when Naeem last hit a BPL half-century, a 72-run knock in 2013 season, he was also a player of the Chittagong Kings.

Earlier the record was held by Afghanistan’s Mohammad Nabi in BPL.

The gap between his two half-century was 2625 days. After hitting a half-century in 2016-2017 seasons for Chittagong, he then again got a fifty in 2023-2024 editions for Rangpur Riders.

Pakistani recruits Ahmed Shehzad and Babar Azam occupied the next two spots, taking 2618 days and 2247 days respectably in between their two fifties.

Naeem also took two wickets which was the first instance for him to get more than one wicket after 2015-2016 season of BPL. Last time for Comilla Victorians he took more than one wicket when he scalped three wickets for seven runs.

So this allround performance was enough to get him the man of the match award, which is also the first time for him after February 2013.

“It feels really good. When you can contribute well to the team with both batting and bowling, it will give you immense pleasure,” Naeem said on Tuesday.