Ace all-rounder Sakib al Hasan made his bow at the Big Bash on Sunday and almost led Adelaide Strikers to a victory against Sydney Sixers at the Adelaide Oval.
Sakib smashed 46 runs off 30 balls with the help of three boundaries and two sixes and scalped 2-21 from his four overs as the Strikers went down by six wickets in the Australia’s premier domestic Twenty20 competition.
Drafted in as a replacement for South African all-rounder Johan Botha, Sakib was one of the star performers for the Strikers and contributed with both bat and ball on his Big Bash debut. This was the first time a Bangladeshi cricketer played in an Australian domestic List-A tournament.
Electing to bat first after winning the toss, the Strikers were in early trouble at 32-4 by the eighth over. Sakib though resurrected the innings alongside Nathan Reardon as the Strikers finished on 149-7 in 20 overs.
Sakib added 80 runs with Reardon for the fifth wicket to give some respectability to the Strikers total.
The former Bangladesh captain struck his first boundary off Brett Lee in the 10th over before hitting another four off Ravi Bopara in the next over. Sakib’s first of the two sixes came in the 14th over bowled by Steve O’Keefe with the second arriving in the 15th over by Moises Henriques.
In the 16th over, Sakib blasted his final boundary before being dismissed by Josh Hazlewood. By the time Sakib departed, the Strikers were in a much better position. They took 37 runs off the final four overs.
In reply, the Sixers were cruising along before Sakib got his first wicket in his second over, trapping Henriques leg-before wicket in the eighth over.
After conceding nine runs in his opening over, Sakib gave away just two runs in his second over besides picking up a wicket. He was hit for six runs in his third over but not before dismissing the Sixers’ highest scorer, Michael Lumb, in the 14th over of the innings. In his fourth and final over, Sakib conceded four runs and ended the game as the most successful Strikers bowler.
Even though the Sixers eventually reached 150-4 in 19.1 overs, the 26-year-old Bangladesh all-rounder fared well and started his Big Bash campaign brightly.
After the defeat, the Strikers were in third position in the eight-team competition with five points from four games.
The Strikers’ next game is on January 9 against Cameron White’s Melbourne Stars in Melbourne.
‘It would have been nice to get a win but we will try our best to come back harder in the next game,’ Sakib was quoted as saying in the Facebook page of Adelaide Strikers.
‘I had a decent game, I arrived yesterday [Saturday] (so) it wasn’t easy for me to come and play straight away and perform. Thanks to Allah that I did it and I’m happy.
‘I was hitting it well, I could have hit it much more better but I’ll take it from here and try to contribute more for the team.’
-With New Age input
