Opener Imran Nazir smashed a superb half-century to help Dhaka Gladiators lift the first ever Bangladesh Premier League title outplaying Barisal Burners by eight wickets in the final on Wednesday.
Chasing a modest target of 141 runs, Gladiators raced to 144-2 in 15.4 overs riding on Nazir’s 75 from 43 balls, his fourth half-century in the competition that included six sixes and as many fours.
In a line-up crammed with Pakistani players, young Bangladeshi batsman Anamul Haq made his mark by hitting an unbeaten 49 that made Dhaka’s job a lot easier than it was expected.
Anamul, who added 110 with Nazir for the second wicket, struck left-arm spinner Nazmul Islam for two fours in three balls of the final over to complete the win with 26 balls still to be played. Man-of-the-final Nazir was out just five runs away from win when he gave a catch to Ahmed Shehzad off Alauddin Babu at mid-wicket. Nazimuddin was the only other batsman for Dhaka to be dismissed when Sohrawardi Shuvo made him a catch of Mominul Haque at extra cover in his first ball of the match.
Nazim, who made 13, was earlier dropped twice by Mithun Ali off consecutive balls, but he could not reap the benefit of twin reprieves.
Dropped catches, a common phenomenon throughout the tournament, was also conspicuous in the innings of Barisal, who came into this final with overwhelming wins behind them in their last round-robin match and the semi-final.
On both the previous occasions they were outstanding in their chase, so Dhaka captain Mashrafee bin Murtaza was not ready to give him the chance again.
Mashrafee won the toss and readily elected to field only to see his wicketkeeper Dhiman Ghosh grass a catch at the start of Barisal innings what could have been very expensive.
Ahmed Shehzad, the most prolific run-getter in the tournament, showed in the semi-final what he can do if he is given any life as he made the most of two drop catches to score a century from just 40 balls.
But thankfully for Dhaka, Dhiman’s dropping of him on 15 off Mashrafee did not appear that expensive. Shahid Afridi forced Shehzad to loft a catch to Saeed Ajmal off only his second delivery which gave Dhaka a huge relief.
Ajmal and Gladiators’ another Pakistani recruit Rana Naveed-ul Hasan also struck in their first balls, more precisely with their second ball like Afridi, as Barisal were reduced to 74-4 halfway through the innings.
Brad Hodge carried the bat through to stay 70 not out facing 51 balls, but the Dhaka bowlers struck regularly from the other end to peg back Barisal. Afridi provided the X-factor finishing with 3-23 while kept Barisal’s score always in Dhaka’s reach.
Barisal’s Ahmed Shehzad scored highest 486 runs in the tournament while Dhaka Gladiators’ Bangladeshi left-arm spinner Elias Sunny took highest 17 wickets.
Sunny was also adjudged most valuable Bangladeshi player while man of the tournament prize went to Khulna Royal Bengals’ Sakib al Hasan, who claimed 15 wickets and scored 280 runs. Sakib won a Honda CITY 1.5L car as an award, given by Honda Automobiles in Bangladesh.
Dhaka’s Mohammad Ashraful was awarded for maximum nine catches in the tournament.
Dhaka were given a winners’ purse of Tk 5 crore while Barisal won Tk 2 crore as runners-up.
-With New Age input
