Dhaka Platoon opener Tamim Iqbal congratulates team-mate Mahedi Hasan (L) after he completed his fifty during their Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League match against Cumilla Warriors at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram on Monday. — BCB photo
Mahedi Hasan’s all-round heroics outshone Bhanuka Rajapaksa’s unbeaten 96 off 65 balls as Dhaka Platoon registered their third win in Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League, beating Cumilla Warriors by five wickets at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram on Monday.
Mahedi finished with 2-9 in his four overs to help Dhaka restrict Cumilla to 160-3 in their stipulated overs before the 25-year old struck a blistering 59 off 29 balls, propelling his side to 161-5 in 19.5 overs to clinch a nervy win.
Rajapaksa earlier staged a lone battle, hitting four fours and seven sixes in his career-best innings after Cumilla were reduced to 57-3 in 10 overs after being sent to bat first.
The Sri Lankan got a lucky reprieve on 20 in the fifth over when he gave a catch off Wahab Riaz and left the field but was called back from the pavilion after third umpire Morshed Ali spotted that the bowler had overstepped.
Rajapaksa then scored another 76 runs and put up an unbeaten 103-run stand for the fourth wicket with Yasir (30 not out) to help Cumilla post a modest total.
‘It was not the easiest wicket to bat on. But at the same time if we bowled at correct line and lengths as the opponent did we could have manage to win the game,’ said Rajapaksa.
Dhaka in reply lost Anamul Haque (0) in the first over of the chase, which made him the joint highest duck scorer in BPL along with Imrul Kayes (10).
Mahedi, who was promoted up the batting-order, then smashed two fours and seven sixes and added 83 runs for the second wicket with Tamim Iqbal to give Dhaka the upperhand.
Pacer Al-Amin Hossain dismissed Mahedi to break the dangerous-looking stand before Mujeeb ur Rahman (2-22) sent back Asif Ali (0) and Jaker Ali (0) in successive deliveries to reduce Dhaka to 88-4 in 10 overs.
Tamim and Mominul Haque then put up 34 runs for the fifth wicket before Soumya dismissed Tamim for a dogged 34 off 40 balls.
Mujeeb returned for his final spell in the 18th over and thought to have claimed a hat-trick when Afridi was adjudged leg-before off the first ball, but he was denied the feat as the decision was overturned after Afridi took a review.
Mominul (28 not out) and Shahid Afridi (26 not out) then guided Dhaka to their target, which took Dhaka to number three in the points table.
‘Mujeeb was bowling for them upfront. It was difficult to face him. The management thought my wicket was valueless, and sent me up to tackle Mujeeb. I took a chance against the off-spinner and was successful,’ Mahedi said after the match.
‘I was trying to shuffle around the wicket so that he [Mujeeb] could not settle into a good length. I got some balls in my strong zone and I was successful,’ he added.
Source: New Age.