Barisal defy Sabbir’s record ton

It’s victory of a true T20 match

What happened in three hours match between Rajshahi Kings and Barisal Bulls was a true advertisement of the BPL-4, a tournament that struggled to gain the momentum because of recurring low scoring affairs. At Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium yesterday the two teams gave the fans the spectacle they were craving for but for one surely it would be a nightmare. Sabbir Rahman brought all kind of power and elegance, unleashing marvelous shots from his repertoire to justify as to why he is called the ‘king of T20’ for Bangladesh. But still his epic 61 ball-122 , the highest individual score of BPL history, couldn’t deliver Rajshahi Kings the victory despite coming so close. Barisal Bulls held the nerve in the crunch moment to seal a four-run victory in a high-scoring thriller to leave Rajshahi scratching the hair with utmost despair.

Dhaka Dynamites on Saturday showed what approach a team should adopt to score huge runs in this surface despite all kind of negative talks about the pitch. Barisal Bulls followed the route, racking up a huge 192 for four and defended it shrewdly by restricting Rajshahi Kings to 188 for six.
Kings who failed to score seven runs in the last over of the first match against Khulna Titans, was in similar stage again as they needed nine runs to win the match against Barisal. The pair of Abul Hasan Raju and Nurul Hasan Sohan could score just four runs in the over to concede the defeat in the match in what was thoroughly dominated by them till the 19th over.
In pursuit of 193, Kings received a setback when Bulls new ball bowler Monir Hossain removed Raqibul Hasan in the second ball of the chase. Sabbir Rahman’s display of insanely beautiful batting started from there on. It’s a kind of innings that would definitely be considered as one of the greatest knocks, played by any Bangladeshi batsman in the shortest format of the game.
He was reprieved by Al-Amin Hossain on 14, who dropped a sitter at cover point. But he showed how to capitalise on it, a thing that most of the Bangladeshi batsmen couldn’t do. Thereafter what he did in the gloomy afternoon was a true spectacle in any sense. He upper cut to club six, he unleashed helicopter shot to clear the boundary, he scooped, he reverse-swept, he drove, he flicked, whacked, glanced—all of which with grace and ruthless power to leave the Barisal bowlers disarray. Wickets were tumbling around him but he didn’t care. He was unstoppable. He shared 61 runs with Samit Patel who contributed just 15 and 42 with skipper Darren Sammy after Kings were left in precarious 49 for three.
His two significant partnerships in which he dominated like a boss made Kings clearly favourite. Al-Amin Hossain finally ended the spectacle with Kings just 34 runs away off 24 balls. By the time when he was dismissed, Sabbir struck nine fours and as many sixes. No Bangladeshi batsmen could smack so many sixes in any kind of T20 game. However he couldn’t break the record of highest T20 score by a Bangladeshi batsman in a domestic tournament. Tamim Iqbal scored 130 against Mohammedan for UCB-BCB XI in Victory Day T20 Cup in 2013 and it remained safe. But he broke the record of Chris Gayle who with 116 was the highest individual scorer in BPL history.
Darren Sammy was the man to take the team home but Rayad Emrit got him in the penultimate delivery of 19th over to give the Bulls an occasion to exult. Sammy scored 27 off 19 with three boundaries. Nurul Hasan Sohan and Abul Hasan Raju then failed to improvise the shot and threw the match from a winning position.
Sabbir’s monumental knock however hogged the limelight despite his team’s defeat but it could have been the day of Mushfiqur Rahim who smashed an unbeaten 52 ball-81 to steer the side to a gigantic total. Mushfiqur struck five fours and four sixes in the knock and shared a 112-run with Shahriar Nafees for the third wicket after his side was reeling to 21 for two.  Nafees made 63 off 44 with four fours and as many sixes to continue his rich vein of form.  Thisara Perera then clubbed 21 off 11 with three sixes as Bulls closed in on 200.

Barisal defy Sabbirs record ton

Its victory of a true T20 match

What happened in three hours match between Rajshahi Kings and Barisal Bulls was a true advertisement of the BPL-4, a tournament that struggled to gain the momentum because of recurring low scoring affairs. At Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium yesterday the two teams gave the fans the spectacle they were craving for but for one surely it would be a nightmare. Sabbir Rahman brought all kind of power and elegance, unleashing marvelous shots from his repertoire to justify as to why he is called the king of T20 for Bangladesh. But still his epic 61 ball-122 , the highest individual score of BPL history, couldnt deliver Rajshahi Kings the victory despite coming so close. Barisal Bulls held the nerve in the crunch moment to seal a four-run victory in a high-scoring thriller to leave Rajshahi scratching the hair with utmost despair. Dhaka Dynamites on Saturday showed what approach a team should adopt to score huge runs in this surface despite all kind of negative talks about the pitch. Barisal Bulls followed the route, racking up a huge 192 for four and defended it shrewdly by restricting Rajshahi Kings to 188 for six. Kings who failed to score seven runs in the last over of the first match against Khulna Titans, was in similar stage again as they needed nine runs to win the match against Barisal. The pair of Abul Hasan Raju and Nurul Hasan Sohan could score just four runs in the over to concede the defeat in the match in what was thoroughly dominated by them till the 19th over. In pursuit of 193, Kings received a setback when Bulls new ball bowler Monir Hossain removed Raqibul Hasan in the second ball of the chase. Sabbir Rahmans display of insanely beautiful batting started from there on. Its a kind of innings that would definitely be considered as one of the greatest knocks, played by any Bangladeshi batsman in the shortest format of the game. He was reprieved by Al-Amin Hossain on 14, who dropped a sitter at cover point. But he showed how to capitalise on it, a thing that most of the Bangladeshi batsmen couldnt do. Thereafter what he did in the gloomy afternoon was a true spectacle in any sense. He upper cut to club six, he unleashed helicopter shot to clear the boundary, he scooped, he reverse-swept, he drove, he flicked, whacked, glancedall of which with grace and ruthless power to leave the Barisal bowlers disarray. Wickets were tumbling around him but he didnt care. He was unstoppable. He shared 61 runs with Samit Patel who contributed just 15 and 42 with skipper Darren Sammy after Kings were left in precarious 49 for three. His two significant partnerships in which he dominated like a boss made Kings clearly favourite. Al-Amin Hossain finally ended the spectacle with Kings just 34 runs away off 24 balls. By the time when he was dismissed, Sabbir struck nine fours and as many sixes. No Bangladeshi batsmen could smack so many sixes in any kind of T20 game. However he couldnt break the record of highest T20 score by a Bangladeshi batsman in a domestic tournament. Tamim Iqbal scored 130 against Mohammedan for UCB-BCB XI in Victory Day T20 Cup in 2013 and it remained safe. But he broke the record of Chris Gayle who with 116 was the highest individual scorer in BPL history. Darren Sammy was the man to take the team home but Rayad Emrit got him in the penultimate delivery of 19th over to give the Bulls an occasion to exult. Sammy scored 27 off 19 with three boundaries. Nurul Hasan Sohan and Abul Hasan Raju then failed to improvise the shot and threw the match from a winning position. Sabbirs monumental knock however hogged the limelight despite his teams defeat but it could have been the day of Mushfiqur Rahim who smashed an unbeaten 52 ball-81 to steer the side to a gigantic total. Mushfiqur struck five fours and four sixes in the knock and shared a 112-run with Shahriar Nafees for the third wicket after his side was reeling to 21 for two. Nafees made 63 off 44 with four fours and as many sixes to continue his rich vein of form. Thisara Perera then clubbed 21 off 11 with three sixes as Bulls closed in on 200.