Faheem Ashraf claimed a fifer as Fortune Barishal secured their playoff spot after Rangpur Riders in the ongoing BPL by beating Sylhet Strikers by eight wickets at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Tuesday.
The bowlers鈥攍ed by Faheem鈥攁gain did the main job for Barishal by restricting Sylhet to just 116 runs in 18.1 overs.
Tamim Iqbal then hit his third fifty of the season to complete a comprehensive win for the defending champions.
Mohammad Nabi made the early incision in the Sylhet innings, who elected to bat first, by dismissing George Munsey in the second over. Sylhet became 35-4 in the powerplay and never recovered from that.
A 26-ball, 32-run partnership for the sixth wicket between Jaker Ali (24 off 19) and Ahasan Bhatti was the highest in the innings.
The last batter, Sumon Khan, was Faheem鈥檚 fifth victim of the day; the Pakistani pacer finished with a figure of 5-7, which is the second least runs conceded by a bowler in the BPL to grab five wickets.
This was also Faheem鈥檚 second-best bowling in his career.
鈥榊ou鈥檝e got to face tough situations while playing in different conditions,鈥� said Faheem after the match.
鈥榊ou keep improving day by day. I didn鈥檛 do anything extraordinary, just bowled with simple plans.鈥�
In reply, Barishal lost Towhid Hridoy and Dawid Malan in the powerplay. But Tamim and Mushfiqur Rahim added an unbeaten partnership of 81 runs from 60 balls to take Barishal home.
Tamim remained unbeaten on 52 off 51 while Mushfiq made 42 off 30.
Barishal are now second with 14 points after nine matches. On the other hand, Sylhet鈥檚 campaign took another jolt as this was their fifth consecutive defeat, and their chances of reaching the playoffs were all but over.
Looking back into the tournament, Sylhet鈥檚 head coach, Mahmudul Emon, said that they didn鈥檛 get the expected services from their foreign players.
鈥業n some matches, we鈥檝e got chances to bring the match towards us. But when we needed a partnership, we didn鈥檛 get that since the first match. We couldn鈥檛 carry the momentum,鈥� said Emon.
鈥楾he foreign players couldn鈥檛 deliver according to the expectations. Each player became one-sided. We had better expectations [from them], especially from [Reece] Topely. But we didn鈥檛 get that,鈥� he added.
Sylhet now have four points from 10 matches with two games remaining. They will face Durbar Rajshahi today and then Chittagong Kings on Thursday.