Sylhet crumble at home

Table toppers of the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League Sylhet Strikers received a hammering in the hands of Rangpur Riders in their first match of the Sylhet phase on Friday as they lost their first outing in the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium by six wickets.

Batting first, Sylhet were absolutely shocked and smashed very early as they lost seven wickets within the ninth over for just 18 runs, with Afghan pacer Azmatullah Omarzai running riot with three wickets in his first two overs.

The tie was realistically done by then as a valiant effort from pacer Tanzim Hasan Sakib, who scored 41, took them to 92-9. The surprising aspect of that was they were not bowled out, which seemed like the most possible reality halfway through.

In reply, Rangpur lost four wickets but Rony Talukder, who was brought back to the XI for this match, stayed unbeaten on 41 to guide his side to a comfortable victory with 26 balls in hand.

Rather than blaming his batters, Sylhet batting coach Tushar Imran praised Rangpur’s bowling effort.

“We took time evaluating the wicket. But they (Rangpur) bowled really well. We have struggled with the bat in our last three matches. We have to get past this. If someone could stick around like Shanto (Najmul Hossain) did against Barishal, we could have scored around 160-170. We could not do that,” he said in the post-match press conference.

Player of the match Omarzai, who picked up four wickets for 17 runs, said his aim was to bowl good lines and lengths.

“The ball was swinging a lot in these conditions. I was telling Haris (Rauf) that the higher I pitched the ball, the more swing I was getting. My eye was on bowling good lines and lengths. That is what brought me success,” he said.

The result has put Rangpur a bit closer to the play-offs as they currently have eight points from seven matches, four more than fifth-placed Khulna Tigers, who have played a match less.

Earlier in the day, Rangpur skipper Nurul Hasan Sohan won the toss and opted to field first and Omarzai took little time to strike as he got rid of Tom Moores (2) in the second over.

Last match’s star for Sylhet, Najmul Hossain Shanto, could not make it count on Friday as Shak Mahedi Hasan got him for nine before Omarzai struck twice in two balls to get rid of Towhid Hridoy and Mushfiqur Rahim, both of whom failed to open their scoring.

It was Zakir’s turn next as he was also gone for a duck, stumped off the bowling off Mahedi.

Sylhet’s troubles only grew as Haris Rauf and Hasan Mahmud struck in consecutive overs to first get rid of Thisara Perera (3) and then Imad Wasim (1).

It seemed like Sylhet would crumble for the lowest-ever BPL total, but 48-run stand between skipper Mashrafe and Sakib meant they avoided that milestone.

Hasan got the better of Mashrafe (21) in the 16th over and then two overs later, he got Sakib, who scored 41 off 36 balls, hitting five fours and two sixes.

In reply, Rony and Mohammad Naim’s opening stand was slowish, but with a meagre target of 93 ahead, it was justified.

Naim (18) was sent back by Rejaur Rahman Raja, and Mashrafe’s double strike, which sent Mahedi (8) and Shoaib Malik (0) back, seemingly brought some life back into the game.

But Rony held on to one end and ensured that his side found their fourth victory of the season.