Unbeaten knocks from skipper Mushfiqur Rahim and opener Mohammad Naim helped Abahani Limited seal a convincing nine-wicket victory over Brothers Union and maintain their perfect run in the ongoing Bangabandhu Dhaka Premier Division T20 League at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur today.
With today’s victory, Abahani moved to the top of the table with three wins from as many games. Meanwhile, Brothers suffered their first loss in three games with one match being abandoned due to rain.
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The match, however, was reduced to 11-overs-a-side due to a sudden downpour soon after the toss, which was won by Abahani.
Chasing a commendable 102-run target, Abahani got off to a splendid start, scoring around 10 an over in the first three overs. But the wicket of opener Munim Shahriar in the fourth over following his 12-ball 25-run blitz had somewhat slowed down Abahani’s scoring rate for a while.
The Sky Blues, however, did not suffer anymore hiccups as they romped to victory in 9.5 overs with Mushfiqur unbeaten on a 21-ball 37 and Naim not out on 36 off 26 deliveries.
Earlier, after being sent to bat, Brothers got off to a flying start, thanks to a quick-fire 14-ball 20 from skipper Mizanur Rahman. The duo of Mizanur and Junaid Siddique stitched a 38-run opening stand before the former fell prey to young medium pacer Tanzim Hasan Sakib.
Following the dismissal of their skipper, Brothers suffered a slump as left-arm spinner Arafat Sunny removed Myshukur Rahman and Rahatul Ferdous in consecutive deliveries in the sixth over.
Brothers’ troubles compounded when Tanzim picked up the scalps of Junaid Siddique and Habibur Rahman — again in back-to-back deliveries — leaving Brothers struggling at 51 for five after 7.4 overs. However, unbeaten cameos from Alauddin Babu (24 off 10) and wicketkeeper Zahiduzzaman (25 off 10) helped Brothers finish with a commendable score of 101 for five.
Tanzim and Sunny remained impressive with the ball for Brothers. Tanzim ended with figures of three for nine in his two overs while Sunny scalped two wickets giving away just five runs in two overs.
