Mashrafe’s gambit

Mashrafe Mortaza has a long reputation for promoting himself up the order in the Bangladesh Premier League and he did such on successive occasions in the playoffs for Sylhet Strikers.

Mashrafe previously cited that he did this to disrupt the opposition’s plans and it was pretty evident in their first qualifier against Comilla Victorians, when he promoted himself to number five, as his counterpart Imrul Kayes scuffled to change his tactics to get rid of the veteran cricketer.

Before getting out, Mashrafe scored 26 runs off 17 balls, which gave them somewhat of a steady platform to build on following a collapse at the start. However, that did not matter as their remaining batting order struggled, leading to them being bowled out for 125 and eventually losing the tie.

On Tuesday, he promoted himself even further to number three following a 65-run opening stand between Najmul Hossain Shanto and Towhid Hridoy.

Mashrafe played an innings similar to Sunday’s as he scored 28 off 16 balls, hitting three fours and a six. This time around, the other batters managed to ensure that his innings as a floater ended up paying dividends as Sylhet managed to score 182-7, courtesy of Thisara Perera’s 21 off 15 balls and George Linde’s unbeaten 21 runs off 10 balls.

Despite coming with little preparation, Mashrafe has had a pretty good outing in this edition as he has picked up 12 wickets in the tournament. Due to injury, he has only bowled just one over in the last two matches but his contribution in the playoffs ended up coming with the bat, and in the end, it might just have paid off.