MOMENTS
FAMILIARITY BREEDS A SIX
The interesting aspect of franchise competitions like the BPL is that it pits teammates against each other, which creates a dynamic all its own as they know each other's game inside out. They also practice exhaustively in the nets against each other, and that was painfully obvious for Chittagong Vikings fast bowler Taskin Ahmed when he bowled the first ball of his spell to Bangladesh teammate and Khulna Titans captain Mahmudullah Riyad. The senior batsman knew what was coming. It would be short of a length and outside off stump. As if he had seen the target on the pitch like in a video game, Mahmudullah advanced, the ball found its target and the batsman found his, behind Taskin's head for six.
It went the other way too; knowing that Mahmudullah is none too comfortable against the bouncer, especially early on, Taskin unleashed one in the third ball of the over and hit the gloves hard enough for the magic spray to be called for.
PLAN FOR BRATHWAITE, BUT WHAT OF ARIFUL?
Having held Khulna to 122 for five after 17 overs, Chittagong captain Misbahul Haq had his sights set on limiting the Vikings' progress to below 150. To accomplish that, he had to stop Carlos Brathwaite from going berserk. With memories of the big West Indian hitting England pacer Ben Stokes for four consecutive sixes to win the 2016 World Twenty20 fresh in the mind, Misbah understandably opted for a spinner in Tanbir Hayder to deny Brathwaite a feast on the pacers.
In hindsight, it was not Brathwaite that he needed to worry about. Local batsman Ariful Haque hit Tanbir for three sixes and a four in the 18th over, which yielded 24 and Khulna went on to plunder 48 runs in the last three overs.
“It was a gamble to get him [Brathwaite] out, but he [Tanbir] did not even get a chance to bowl to him and the local guy [Ariful] just hit him for 24 runs,” a bemused Misbah said after the match.
MEHEDI MIDDLES, BUT SAMUEL REVERSES
Rajshahi Kings lower-order batsman Mehedi Hasan Miraz was not having a good time with the bat against Comilla Victorians in the evening match yesterday. He was completely flummoxed by a Rashid Khan googly, but Liton Das dropped the inside edge. He barely middled any of the 11 balls he faced, but the one that he did was the last one he played. He reverse-swept Mohammad Nabi towards backward point and Marlon Samuels took two steps to his right before putting in a full-dive, completing a spectacular one-handed take parallel to the ground inches below.