Shamim Hossain鈥檚 bravery went in vain as Khulna Tigers beat Chittagong Kings by 37 runs in their Bangladesh Premier League match at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Tuesday.
After being sent in to bat, Australian William Bosisto鈥檚 75 off 50 balls and Mahidul Islam鈥檚 blistering 22-ball 59 not out propelled Khulna to 203-4 in 20 overs, the first 200-plus total of this season.
Shamim then played a lone hand of 78 off 38 balls, but that couldn鈥檛 get Chittagong over the line as they were bowled out for 166 in 18.5 overs.
Khulna got a moderate start as Naim Sheikh鈥檚 17-ball 26-run innings was ended by Aliss Al Islam. A fifty partnership between Mehidy Hasan Miraz鈥攚ho was slotted at three鈥攁nd Bosisto laid the foundation for them.聽
Mahidul then came with all guns blazing as the Chittagong bowlers seemed clueless. He reached his fifty in just 18 balls, the fastest among Bangladeshi batters in BPL.
The wicketkeeper-batter hit six sixes and ended on a strike rate of 268.18鈥攁lso the highest among Bangladeshi batters where a minimum of 50 runs were scored.聽
Khulna head coach Talha Jubayer hailed Mahidul for his mentality.聽
鈥業 had a target that if a wicket fell inside 15 overs, then Ankon [Mahidul] would go. I had that trust in the mentality and the mind setup he had been having,鈥� Talha told reporters after the match.聽
Khulna scored 84 runs from the last five overs. Chittagong captain Mohammad Mithun later said that they lost the momentum there and never recovered from that.聽
鈥業f you鈥檙e to chase down 200 runs, it鈥檚 very important to get a big score from the top order,鈥� said Mithun.聽
鈥業 feel that we lost the momentum in the last part of the bowling, and that affected the start of our batting too.鈥�
The start of the chase of Chittagong was quite bizarre, though, as the scoreboard read 15 runs from one ball at the beginning as the Caribbean pacer Oshane Thomas bowled three no-balls and two wides while bowling just one legitimate delivery.聽
But Chittagong failed to capitalise on that as they lost four wickets inside the powerplay.
鈥楾o be honest, we should鈥簐e taken the advantage that chasing 200-plus, you got 15 runs from one ball,鈥� said Mithun.
Soon they became 75-8 in just over 10 overs. At that time a record defeat was staring at them, but Shamim鈥攆resh from his good form for Bangladesh against the West Indies鈥攖hought otherwise.聽
The left-hander, who reached fifty in 23 balls, added 77 runs鈥攖he highest for the ninth wicket in BPL鈥攚ith Aliss Al Islam, who contributed six off 18.聽
Shamim was congratulated by the opponent when he was dismissed by Abu Hider, who ended up with 4-44.
