Pacer Al Amin Hossain’s five-wicket haul, including a hat-trick, allowed Barisal Bulls defend 108 runs and win the low scoring thriller against Sylhet Super Stars by just one run yesterday. With Ravi Bopara and Owais Shah available for selection, Sylhet fielded a strong team compared to Barisal but had no answer to the heroics of Al Amin who finished with figures of 5-36.
In pursuit of the paltry total Sylhet faltered from the beginning as Al Amin completed his hat-trick inside four overs to reduce the opposition to 18 for four. After having Mominul Haque and Ravi Bopara caught behind, Al Amin dismantled Nurul Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim to announce a strong resistance.
As overs went by, Taijul Islam and Kevon Cooper made sure the required run-rate stayed up while Mohammad Sami, who has the first BPL hat-trick beside his name for Duronto Rajshahi in 2012, played the biggest supporting role by giving away nine runs off his speedy four overs.
A 28-run stand between Nazmul Hasan and Nazmul Islam revived hopes for Sylhet and despite two dropped catches, Taijul held on to a blinder at covers as Barisal hung on to pull off a brilliant result that took them top of the table.
“We were 20 runs short,” said Mahmudullah, “I felt the wicket was sticky. I think we should have batted more sensibly. The bowlers did great. I knew we needed wickets to defend it, but the hat-trick from Al-Amin and Taijul bowled really well. His catch was the turning point. His last over, to defend 10 runs, he bowled really well”
Earlier, Barisal crossed the 100-run mark courtesy of Nadif Chowdhury (24) and Taijul’s unbeaten 10. They were 80-7 at one stage with left-arm spinner Nazmul bagging 3-18.