Sylhet Sixers kept alive their hope of qualifying for the playoffs of the Bangladesh Premier League’s sixth edition as they beat Khulna Titans by 58 runs at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium Saturday.
How the action unfolded
Sixers batsmen made a combined effort to put up a substantial 195/4 on the board after winning the toss and their bowlers made it count as they bundled out the opposition for 137 in 18.1 overs.
Titans opener Brendan Taylor and Junaid Siddique, who made 20, formed a 27-run opening-wicket stand in just 2.3 overs but since the departure of the latter, they lost wickets at regular intervals.
Taylor scored the highest 34 and after his dismissal as the fourth batsman, only Ariful Haque offered some resistance with a 24-innings, but that was not enough for Titans.
Nabil Samad picked up three wickets for Sylhet while Taskin Ahmed took two.
The game changers
Earlier in the day, Sylhet were off to an explosive start as Afif Hossain and Liton Kumar Das formed a 71-run opening partnership before the latter was dismissed in the eighth over for 34.
Jason Roy, the one-down batsman, soon followed him with just one run, and Afif missed his half-century by just one run.
Nicholas Pooran got out for 12 and left his side on 106/4 in the 14th over.
But, Sabbir Rahman, who scored 44 off 29, and man-of-the-match Mohammad Nawaz (39 off 21) kept the onslaught and remained not out till the end.
Taijul Islam was the pick of Titans bowlers with a return of 3/30.
Key moments
Good opening stand
Sixers made a change in their opening combination as Afif came to open the innings, instead of Sabbir, with regular opener Liton.
The change paid rich dividends as the duo stitched together a quickfire start and their opening stand gave their side an early edge and laid a solid platform for the eventual big score.
Sabbir makes useful runs in the end
Sabbir came out to bat at No 4 and started his innings patiently.
The right-hander eventually started to hit boundaries in the death overs and played a useful knock of 44.
He hit four fours and two sixes and remained unbeaten.
This aggression in the late stage of the innings certainly gave him some confidence as he is being considered to play the finishing role for the national side in ODIs in their upcoming New Zealand tour.
Roy stunner to remove Taylor
Khulna made a good start as well, with Junaid and Taylor.
But they lost both Junaid and Al-Amin within the power play.
Taylor was scoring some runs from the other end and kept the chase on.
But the Zimbabwean fell prey to an astonishing piece of fielding by Englishman Roy.
Taylor tried to clear the boundary against spinner Nabil as Roy ran towards his left and took a one-handed blinder by diving to his left.
A brilliant catch in the end and Khulna’s hope of chasing down the total started to fade after Taylor’s dismissal.
BPL standing
Khulna stayed at the bottom of the points table as this was their eighth loss in 10 matches.
On the other hand, Sylhet have eight points from the same number of outings as Khulna.
31ST MATCH, KTvSS
SYLHET SIXERS INNINGS R B
Liton c Wiese b Taijul 34 22
Afif c Al-Amin b Taijul 49 37
Roy c Junaid b Taijul 1 6
Sabbir not out 44 29
Pooran c Taylor b Junaid 12 10
Nawaz not out 39 21
Extras (b 4, nb 5, w 7) 16
Total (20 Overs) 195/4
Fall Of Wickets
1-71 (Liton), 2-84 (Roy), 3-89 (Afif), 4-106 (Pooran)
Bowling
Subashish 4-0-49-0, Yasir 3-0-27-0, Taijul 4-0-30-3, Wiese 4-0-32-0, Junaid 4-0-48-1, Mahmudullah 1-0-5-0
KHULNA TITANS INNINGS R B
Taylor c Roy b Nabil 34 23
Junaid c Sabbir b Taskin 20 11
Al-Amin lbw b Tanvir 16 10
Shanto c Nawaz b Kapali 3 7
Mahmudullah c Roy b Ebadat 11 13
Ariful b Nabil 24 21
Wiese c Afif b Nawaz 5 6
Yasir c Nawaz b Nabil 8 5
Taijul c Pooran b Taskin 9 8
Junaid run out (Nawaz) 2 2
Subashish not out 0 3
Extras (lb 3, w 2) 5
Total (18.1 Overs) 137 all out
Fall Of Wickets
1-27 (Junaid), 2-64 (Al-Amin), 3-68 (Shanto), 4-82 (Taylor), 5-97 (Mahmudullah), 6-115 (Wiese), 7-125 (Yasir), 8-125 (Ariful), 9-135 (Junaid), 10-137 (Taijul)
Bowling
Tanvir 3-0-16-1, Ebadat 3-0-33-1, Taskin 1.1-0-6-2, Nawaz 4-0-34-1, Kapali 3-0-25-1, Nabil 4-0-20-3
Sylhet Sixers won by 58 runs
MoM: Mohammad Nawaz (SS)