Crushing win for Gladiators

Dhaka Gladiators' English batsman Owais Shah lofts one during his blitzkrieg knock of 84 against Khulna Royal Bengals in the opening match of the BPL T20 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday. PHOTO: FIROZ AHMED

Defending champions Dhaka Gladiators produced an exciting performance in the opening match of the second edition of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) to hand a 62-run defeat to Khulna Royal Bengals; a team which had even struggled to form a full playing quota following the absence of Pakistani players.
In front of a small crowd, Anamul Haque and man-of-the-match Owais Shah first excelled with the bat and then left-arm spinner Mosharraf Hossain bowled brilliantly giving away just nine runs in four overs for four wickets as the star-studded Gladiators showed the gulf in class at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday.
The margin of defeat was huge for Khulna but one must be happy knowing the fact that they had to hire two rookie cricketers for water-carrying duties. “We don't have even the 12th man in the team. Our management is trying their best to find the replacement of the Pakistani players but it's a very tough job as the players in Sri Lanka, Australia and South Africa are busy with their commitments. As far as I know Sri Lanka is not willing to release their players before next month,” said Khulna's skipper Shahriar Nafees.
In the match, pacer Dollar Mahmud gave Khulna an early breakthrough removing Joshua Cobb in the second over but Mohammad Ashraful smashed some wonderful boundaries before he was dismissed for an 11-ball 22. Then Anamul and Shah shared a 90-run partnership to help Dhaka amass 204 for four in their share of 20 overs.
Anamul hit 50 off 39 balls that contained four boundaries and three sixes before he was caught by Nabil Samad off Dollar Mahmud. That bought in Shakib Al Hasan who played a cameo knock of 27 from 14 balls with two fours and a six.
It was however Shah who made the maximum from the poor and erratic bowling effort during his 48-ball 84 with the help of four boundaries and six sixes; mostly played on the on-side. Shah found his form immediately in the BPL after a poor display in the Big Bash League.
In reply to a mammoth target Khulna mostly depended a lot on Riki Wessels, their lone foreign player, but the Australian's 23-ball 30 made hardly any impact in the match. Mosharraf sealed the fate of the match taking the wickets of two openers Nazimuddin and Wessels with the scoreboard reading at 67 for 2 in 8.4 overs.
SCORES IN BRIEF
DHAKA GLADIATORS: 204-4 in 20 overs (Cobb 17, Ashraful 22, Anamul 50, Shah 84, Shakib 27 not out, extras 4; Dollar 3-40, Reza 1-42)
KHULNA ROYAL BENGALS: 142-8 in 20 overs (Nazimuddin 27, Wessels 30, Reza 17, Asif 29, extras 7; Mosharraf 4-9, Shakib 1-27, Lokuarachchi 2-29)
Result: Dhaka Gladiators won by 62 runs.
Man-of-the-match: Owais Shah