Mahmudullah played a captain’s knock while Andre Russell played a whirlwind innings to guide Minister Group Dhaka to a four-wicket win over Fortune Barishal at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka on Monday, their first win in the eighth Bangladesh Premier League after two defeats.
Mahmudullah made a run-a-ball 47 while Russell smashed an unbeaten 31 off just 15 balls to take Dhaka to 130-6 in 17.3 overs.
Shafiqul Islam, Alzarri Joseph bagged two wickets each inside the first three overs for Barishal but Dhaka eventually got over the line with relative ease.
Earlier, Chris Gayle, who came out to bat at five, top-scored for Barishal with 36 off 30 balls and Bravo remained undefeated on 33 off 26 balls to take Barishal to 129-8 after they were asked to bat first.
For Dhaka, Russell and Isuru Udana claimed two wickets each.
Chasing a convenient 130, Dhaka’s top order collapsed like a deck of cards as they were reduced to 10-4 in just 2.5 overs.
Opener Tamim Iqbal, who earned consecutive fifties in Dhaka’s first two games, was dismissed for a duck by young paceman Shafiqul Islam.
His fellow opener Mohammad Shazad (five off seven balls) was also outdone by an in-swinging fuller length delivery from the same bowler while Mohammad Naim and Jahurul Islam fell to Joseph for four and 0 respectively.
From the precarious situation, Mahmudullah and Shuvagata Hom rescued their side with a 69-run stand for the fifth wicket.
The partnership ended when Shuvagata was bowled by Bravo for 29 off 25 balls.
Dhaka still needed 51 runs off 41 balls when Russell came to the middle and with the help of three fours and two sixes ensured his team would go on to win their first match in the tournament.
Mahmudullah and Russell together added 50 runs off just 25 balls and the partnership ended when Mahmudullah got caught out off Shakib with scores on level. Udana took the winning run.
Earlier, Barishal’s innings never quite took off, as they lost three wickets inside the first six overs with only 24 runs on the board.
In the fourth wicket stand, Shakib and Chris Gayle added 37 runs to reconstruct the innings but the partnership ended when the former gave a catch behind the stumps off Rubel Hossain after scoring 23 off 19 balls.
Nurul Hasan, who couldn’t feature in the first two games due to being Covid positive, departed for just one run.
Gayle then added 33 runs for the sixth wicket with Bravo, but before he could emerge at his destructive best, Udana knocked out his stumps.
Bravo remained there till the end to push the total over 120.
-With New Age input
