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Fortune Barishal began their title defence in style as they beat newcomers Durbar Rajshahi by four wickets in the opening match of the 11th edition of Bangladesh Premier League at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Monday. 

Chasing 198 runs to win, Barishal reached 200-6 with 11 balls to spare after Mahmudullah and Faheem Ashraf’s batting effort.

Earlier, Rajshahi posted 197-3 thanks to Yasir Ali’s career-best 94 off just 47 balls while captain Anamul Haque Bijoy also played his part with his 65 off 51 ball knock. Together the pair added 140 runs for the third wicket. 

Mahmudullah was the tormentor-in-chief in the run chase with an unbeaten 26-ball 56, while Pakistani recruit Faheem remained unbeaten on 54 off just 21 deliveries. 

Barishal recovered from a precarious position of 61-5 as Mahmudullah and Faheem added a record partnership of 88 runs in just 35 balls for the seventh wicket. 

The run rate of the partnership, 15.08, is the highest in the BPL for any wicket where a minimum of 50 runs was scored while chasing.

Rajshahi kept things tight at the beginning with the national team captain, Najmul Hossain Shanto, being dismissed for a golden duck off Jishan Alam, while Tamim Iqbal followed him in the next over when he was also trapped lbw off Taskin Ahmed. 

Kyle Mayers, Mushfiqur Rahim, and Towhid Hridoy (32 off 23) were dismissed in quick succession as well. 

Barishal promoted another Pakistani, Shaheen Shah Afridi, to seven, and that worked for them as he added a quickfire 51-run partnership from 25 balls with Mahmudullah. 

It was Mahmudullah who hit Lahiru Samarakoon for 16 runs in the last three deliveries of the 10th over to shift the momentum in Barishal’s favour. 

Faheem, who managed to score just two from the first nine balls, hit Hasan Murad for three consecutive sixes in the 15th over. 

Later Rajshahi captain Anamul, who played three foreign players, lamented the lack of bowling options for their failure to defend a big score. 

‘It’s true we didn’t have many options in our bowling,’ said Anamul in the post-match press conference.

‘When a captain has options in his bowling attack, if you think about teams like Barishal, they have a lot of options, yet they conceded 190-plus runs.

‘And we have limitations; you all saw that. We played with one foreigner less; we could have had an all-rounder. I think we have limitations in our bowling attack, experience-wise, apart from Taskin [Ahmed]. If someone else could execute well with him, the game could have been in our favour,’ he added.