Sussex’s hopes of reaching the quarter-finals of the NatWest Twenty20 Blast suffered a potentially fatal blow as they went down to a heavy defeat at the Oval last Friday night.
Sussex were aiming to follow up their victory against Essex at Chelmsford on Thursday to consolidate their position in the top four of the South Group.
But with Ross Taylor having finished his stint with Sussex their batting was found severely wanting as they could only score 153-6 having been put in to bat by a Surrey side who desperately needed a win to revive their hopes of progressing.
That was never going to be enough and Surrey cruised to a six-wicket win with 10 balls to spare which pulled them level with Sussex on 12 points.
Mustafizur Rahman, who starred with the ball on his debut picking up 4/23 against Essex, had a disappointing outing, going wicketless conceding 31 runs.
With other results in the group going against Sussex last Friday night it means that even victory against Glamorgan in their final game at Hove this Thursday would not guarantee them a place in the knockout stages.
Fizz welcomed by Bangladeshi family
Mustafizur is not familiar to England’s environment and weather, having only played there once for Bangladesh Under-19. So in order to adapt to the English conditions better, Mustafizur has been welcomed into a local Bangladeshi’s house.
Sussex County Cricket Club president Jim May informed this before the start of the match against Surrey. May said, “Mustafizur has entered into a Bangladeshi family’s house in Hove. They welcomed him there.”
Fizz to pocket over Tk 34 lakhs from Sussex
The left-arm paceman is expected to play a total of seven matches in the NatWest T20 Blast and the Royal London One-Day Cup, unless his team fail to qualify for the next round.
And according to his deal with the club, Mustafizur is set to receive £30,000 (a little over Tk 34 lakhs in Bangladeshi standard currency).
In the Indian Premier League though, he got Tk one crore 75 lakhs from the franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Sussex tweets in Bangla
As a matter of pride for the Bangladesh fans back home, Sussex, prior to their game against Surrey, tweeted the match timing in Bangla.
When translated in English, the tweet looks like this - “As for our fans in Bangladesh, the game begins at 11:30pm.”
