Soumya, Mithun’s upswing at last

Mithun had been the subject of online trolling for a while and underperformance saw him dropped from the national team's ODI and T20 lineups. A run of poor scores in the BPL further added to the woe, his only saving grace in recent times being the double-hundred he hit in the Bangladesh Cricket League (BCL).

Soumya, too, found BPL hard this season and the left-hander was unable to take advantage of the wickets in the Chattogram phase. The duo, who had also been teammates at Central Zone recently, shared a light moment as Sylhet Sixers faced off Khulna Tigers today. Mithun smashed a 51-ball 71 yesterday but fell to Soumya, who celebrated with a trademark sign of the horns. It was a length delivery with width but Mithun, who capitalised on bad deliveries during his innings, only managed to find the fielder at sweeper-cover. Soumya was all smiles, sending Mithun off, perhaps telling the latter that he had gotten out to a bad delivery after a good effort.

Later, Soumya came out blazing with the bat, hitting a 31-ball 43 as his Khulna side bagged a nine-wicket win. However, Sylhet are yet to find a foothold this season, losing four of their five matches so far.

Sylhet captain Mosaddek surprisingly lamented the performance of the overseas players. "If the foreign players are not performing, then it is difficult for us. The bowling too hasn't been good and we have to have conversations regarding that," Mosaddek said after Khulna batters made a mockery of the 143-run target.

On the other hand, Khulna's Mushfiqur Rahim was rather happy, having said, "I don't know what happened to the top-order batsmen [Soumya and Andre Fletcher starred in a 99-run opening stand]. "I knew if they [Fletcher and Sarkar] applied themselves on a batting wicket then they would come good." Khulna now have three wins from six matches, still in contention as the BPL gears towards its end.

Ace left-arm paceman Mustafizur Rahman recorded his best bowling figures in Bangladesh Premier League, bagging a fifer, before skipper Imrul Kayes and Liton Das strung together a 138-run stand to help Comilla Victorians crush Chattogram Challengers by nine wickets in a curtailed-over game in Mirpur yesterday. Photo: Firoz Ahmed

Fizz after the rain

Mustafizur Rahman became the first bowler this BPL to bag a five-wicket haul during his side Comilla Victorians' match against Chattogram Challengers. Rain had interrupted proceedings at the Sher-e-Bangla Cricket Stadium yesterday, leading to play being stopped for 64 minutes. The left-armer had bagged one wicket before rain but once play commenced, Fizz started to have his say, removing Shamim Hossain and opener Will Jacks, out after a 37-ball 57.

In his next over, Fizz hung on to a brilliant one-handed catch to account for Mohammad Naeem before picking up the crucial wicket of Benny Howell with a trademark slower. And the wicket of Mehedi Hasan Miraz saw Fizz finish with five for 27. He became the seventh Bangladesh bowler to bag a five-wicket haul in BPL while it was also his third fifer in T20s.