Khulna's local boys take them to top of table
Khulna posted the season's highest total courtesy fifties from Afif and Pooran, after which Abu Jayed and Shafiul ran through the Rajshahi batting
Khulna posted the season's highest total courtesy fifties from Afif and Pooran, after which Abu Jayed and Shafiul ran through the Rajshahi batting
Scorer: Ranjith P | Commentator: Sreshth Shah
9.50 pm That's all from Chittagong today. Khulna go on top after a dominating win today against Rajshahi. Hope you enjoyed ESPNcricinfo's coverage of the 30th BPL game. Time for me, Sreshth Shah, to sign off. Enjoy the rest of your evening!
9.45 pm We're ready with the presentation. First up, the losing captain Darren Sammy. He says: "Khulna, congratulations. They outsmarted us. It was always going to be tough to chase 214. We didn't execute our plans in the back overs. It was a good batting pitch, and we thought 180 could be chased. But Khulna were better today in all three disciplines. Their bowlers had a plan, and they stuck to it. We just didn't have any response. "
Now the winning captain, . He says "It was a good total, but we knew we had to come hard with the ball, because we knew they'd come hard at us. The early wickets were useful, and so was the fact that the bowlers were hungry. Happy to see Shanto smack the ball all over, and Afif too. Good to see them performing and Carlos & Pooran batted really well as well. Yes, it was hard to bowl, but you have to embrace the dew. Shaiful was good. Top of the table is good, but we need to maintain."
And the Man-of-the-Match award goes to Nicholas Pooran for his fifty. He says: "This is brilliant, but we still had to get in, and then capitalise. I had a setback (past poor form), and now I've lived from my mistakes and just looking to play good. Khulna is a wonderful team, and most of us are Under-25 guys. Afif, Shanto were excellent as well."
karim: "I am dreaming as Haturisinghe has left BCB, the pair of Mahmudullah and Jayawardhane can be a good option for us :). Like the way they are doing for KT"
Mahneel: "Junaid Khan recently in an interview compared Mahmudullah's captaincy to the likes of MSD and Misbah particularly because how calm he is on field. Really, Mahmudullah has been a revelation for Bangladesh and its tragic how we fail to utilize him. Make him the skipper, back him and he'll win us matches, big ones, like the one against NZ in the Champions Trophy. You watching this, BCB?"
9.40 pm A dominating show from Khulna Titans, who once again jump to the top of the table. The local boys really came to the party today: first, Afif and Shanto with the bat (with some assistance from Pooran), and then Abu Jayed and Shaiful ran through the Rajshahi batting order. Eventually, Khulna's 213 - the BPL's highest total of the season - was just too much for Rajshahi. They'll stay at sixth, as their charge for the play-offs get more difficult. We'll be back with the presentation very soon. Many people can stake their claim to the Man-of-the-Match award tonight.
Mahneel: "Mahmudullah is not in the race to be BD's t20 captain because Shakib has just been appointed recently. As for ODI, Mahmudullah should definitely be the one who gets to be the skipper. Only needs to cement his place in the Test and hopefully he'll be both ODI and test captain of BD. Junaid Khan recently in an interview compared Mahmudullah's captaincy to the likes of MSD and Misbah particularly because how calm he is on field. You watching this, BCB?"
Mohammad Sami c Ariful Haque b Shafiul Islam 18 (14b 2x4 0x6) SR: 128.57
Tasmia Tahia: "Thank you publishing my comments Sreshth . you really made my day. Amazing commentary btw. Lovely to be able to pretend to work while not missing a single detail on field! :D" -- I just hope they don't pretend to pay you! And thanks for your company, the pleasure is mine
Waleed Zahoor: "So Sammy is playing as a specialist captain? This is simply not good enough. Regardless of how good your leadership is, you have to keep contributing in the role you specialize in. For Sammy, he needs to start bowling and bat higher up at 5 maybe. In franchise cricket, it becomes even more of a responsibility cause he is using a spot of an oversees player without utilizing himself. That's probably the reason he was dropped by WICB."
Khulna posted the season's highest total courtesy fifties from Afif and Pooran, after which Abu Jayed and Shafiul ran through the Rajshahi batting