Dhaka the gladiators

Players and officials of Dhaka Gladiators celebrate with the Bangladesh Premier League trophy after defeating Barisal Burners in the final at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur last night. (Inset) Man-of-the-tournament Shakib Al Hasan of Khulna Royal Bengals embarks on a joyride on his Honda City car.Photo: Anisur Rahman

Dhaka Gladiators saved their best for the latter stages of the BPL T20 by becoming its inaugural champions last evening.
The franchise of the country's second largest division took just 15.3 overs to overhaul the Barisal Burners in a 7-wicket win in front of a full house, for successive days, at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur.
The gulf of difference between the two line-ups was for all to see as the Pakistan-heavy Gladiators had a lot more to offer with bat and ball than the top-heavy Burners, who could only muster 140-7 in 20 overs. But despite the glamour of the night, very few of the local players shone on the night, except Dhaka's young Anamul Haque Bijoy who, given the opportunity to bat at No 3, made 49 off 38 balls with the help of five fours and a six.
Anamul sealed the victory for the home team with a lofted on-drive off left-arm spinner Nazmul Islam with 26 balls to spare.
He added 110 runs for the second wicket with opener Imran Nazir hammered six fours and six sixes in his 43-ball 75. Their partnership put the screws on the chase as Dhaka Gladiators, who had an ordinary second-half of the tournament, dominated the knockout stages by beating a strong Khulna Royal Bengals by nine runs, coinciding with the arrival of the deadly Pakistani pair of Shahid Afridi and Saeed Ajmal.
Barisal's defense of their modest total was not helped by their poor catching with Mohammad Mithun, the youngster who was auctioned off for $80,000, having a terrible time under the bright lights. A wicketkeeper by trade, Mithun dropped Nazimuddin twice at deep square-leg off consecutive Kabir Ali deliveries in the second over, both catchable for any fielder of merit.
Apart from Barisal's catching and poor lengths while bowling wasn't their only problem on the night. Their batting too suffered from early losses. So as soon as Ahmed Shehzad fell for 28 in the fifth over by failing to clear Afridi over mid-on and Phil Mustard followed in the fifth by getting trapped leg-before by Ajmal, it was all down to skipper Brad Hodge.
The former Australia batsman didn't disappoint, slamming four boundaries and four sixes in his unbeaten 51-ball 70. Hodge, despite all his efforts, couldn't put together a partnership against a very high quality bowling attack as the rest simply wilted.
Dhaka too did many favours to the Barisal side, giving away several chances in the field with Dhiman Ghosh topping the list of offenders. The wicketkeeper first dropped a skier from Shehzad before missing a stumping off Ajmal, but the much-maligned Rangpur lad did some amends with a fine reflex catch off a ripper from Afridi. Later thought, even the man known as Boom Boom, as well as Azhar Mahmood dropped a skier each.
In the end however, it was the star power of the Dhaka Gladiators that got them through while their effort to keep some Dhaka players in the line-up paid off as Mohammad Ashraful, Elias Sunny and Anamul all gave good accounts of themselves. Dissapointing though was the fact that no Barisal-born players were given enough opportunities in the Barisal Burners line-ups throughout the tournament.
But as far as a Twenty20 jamboree goes, some of the cricket in the field was breath-taking though the off-field issues would remain the talking point till next time.
SCORES IN BRIEF
BARISAL: 140-7 in 20 overs (Hodge 70 not out, Shehzad 28; Afridi 3-23, Naved 2-24).
DHAKA: 144-2 in 15.4 overs (Nazir 75, Anamul 49 not out; Babu 1-9, Shuvo 1-24).
Result: Dhaka won by eight wickets.
Man-of-the-final: Imran Nazir
Man-of-the-tournament: Shakib Al Hasan