¶¶Òõ¾«Æ·

An all-round performance helped Chittagong Kings to secure their third consecutive win in the Bangladesh Premier League as they beat Sylhet Strikers by 30 runs at the Sylhet International Stadium on Monday. 

Chittagong, who were put into bat first, made 203-6, thanks to mainly contributions from three foreign batters—England’s Graham Clark (60 off 33), and Pakistan’s Usman Khan (53 off 35) and Haider Ali (42* off 18). 

In reply, Sylhet managed 173-8 in the allocated overs. 

With this win, Chittagong climbed to second place thanks to their hefty net run rate of 1.323. On the other hand, Sylhet closed out the second phase with four losses and two wins under their belt. 

Parvez Hossain, fresh from being called into the Bangladesh squad for the forthcoming Champions Trophy, got dismissed after making seven from 10. 

However, Usman and Clark, with help from captain Mohammad Mithun, who made 28 off 19, and then Haider with a late blitz, helped Chittagong to go past 200. 

But with dews coming into play in the evening and Sylhet’s small boundaries, 203 should’ve been under threat had the ‘home’ team gotten a good start. 

That they didn’t get as Sylhet lost three wickets inside the powerplay. They were 46-3 after the first six overs. 

George Munsey and Aaron Jones then went inside their shells as they hit a lone boundary in the next five overs. Jones, after making 15 off 18, failed to make up as he was trapped lbw. 

Munsey (52 off 37) tried to accelerate a bit but couldn’t go further. Sylhet’s rebuilding process proved costly as they fell short despite Jaker Ali’s unbeaten 47 off 23. 

Jaker later said that he didn’t know what happened during the 31-ball, 22-run partnership between Munsey and Jones. 

‘Only they knew whatever was going on inside their minds,’ Jaker said after the match. ‘This was a bit short. If 10-15 [more] runs were scored in that phase, then we could’ve been closer toward the end.’

On the other hand, Clark—who was adjudged player of the match—thought that their bowlers pretty much did the job in that phase by restricting Sylhet batters. 

He said, ‘We thought 200 was above par. [But] It’s a pretty good wicket and small boundaries. I thought our bowlers did an excellent job to keep them under; I thought they were 65 [61] after 10 overs. Probably there were too many to take in the last 10; our bowlers were excellent today.’