Home ›› 08 Feb 2022 ›› Sport
An all-round performance from Fortune Barishal skipper Shakib Al Hasan took them to the top of the points table as they beat Comilla Victorians by 32 runs in the opening game of the Sylhet phase of BPL on Monday.
The tie between Comilla and Barishal promised much excitement as both teams have a collection of renowned foreign cricketers along with a bunch of local stars, but the match was mostly one-sided.
Shakib lost the toss but got his wish anyway as Imrul Kayes invited Barishal to bat first. Chris Gayle came out as an opener alongside Munim Shahriar.
But the universe boss could not establish his reign and was out for 10 runs only, and Nazmul Hossain Shanto (1) also failed. Munim (45) was looking promising but failed to get a fifty.
It all came down to Shakib and Towhid Hridoy, who put together 67 runs from 55 balls for the fourth wicket and took Barishal to a total of 155-5 in 20 overs.
Shakib (50) was out right after completing back-to-back half-centuries, while Hridoy was unbeaten on 31 runs. Tanvir Islam took two wickets.
In reply, Comilla had a struggling start as Shakib removed Imrul in his very first over, Mominul Haque came at one-down, scored a run-a-ball 30, but that could not give Comilla the much-needed pace.
They kept losing wickets at regular intervals. The most significant was Moeen Ali, in fine form before joining Comilla Victorians, who got out cheaply against part-timer Nazmul Hossain Shanto.
Karim Janat and Tanvir Islam played a couple of handy cameos but those only narrowed the margin as Comilla managed 123-9 in 20 overs, handing them a defeat by 32 runs.
Shakib picked the wickets of both the openers of Comilla, Imrul and Liton Das and ended with a bowling figure of 2-20 in four overs. With a couple of wickets, his tally moves to 12 and he is now the joint-highest wicket-taker along with Mustafizur Rahman, who picked one against Barishal.
With this win, Barishal moved to the top of the table with 11 points from eight matches, whilst Comilla slide down to the second position.
Shakib was judged ‘man of the match’ for his fifty and two wickets.
