Sylhet slay Barisal by 9 wickets

Sylhet Super Stars registered a comprehensive nine-wicket victory over the listless Barisal Bulls in their seventh match to give themselves a glimmer of hope of qualifying for the knock-outs.

Everything went right for the Sylhet captain Shahid Afridi today, with the toss going in his favour. His bowlers chocked the much-vaunted Barisal batting line-up of runs, while regular strikes pulled the rug from under their opponent’s feet.

Barisal were bowled out for 58, the lowest total in BPL’s history, and then Sylhet batsmen romped to their target.

Nurul Hasan was not out on 23 from 26 and Junaid Siddique was unbeaten on 34 from 37 to take their team home with 52 balls remaining in the match.

Sylhet came out to chase and were rocked early when Mohammad Sami of Barisal dismissed Munaweera for a duck with his fifth ball.

Munaweera ramped the shortish ball outside off from Sami straight down the third-man’s throat. He gave something for the exasperated Bulls fans something to cheer about.

Earlier, Mohadmmad Sami was the last wicket to fall, as his side registered the lowest total in BPL history by crashing to 58 all out.

Barisal comfortably edged out Khulna in the competition for the lowest total ever, beating 67 made in 2013.

For Sylhet, it was a perfect day as the bowlers ruled the roost from ball one.

Ravi Bopara took 3 wickets for 12 runs, Rubel Hossain two for six and Shahid Afridi captured two wickets for five runs in three overs.

For Barisal, Evin Lewis and Mohammad Sami were the only batters from their side to reach double-digits in runs scored.

Shahid Afridi got his second wicket of the game when his slider was too god for Barisal’s Sajedul.

Sylhet captain didn’t want to miss out on the fun his bowlers were having, and got his name on the wickets-column when Barisal’s Taijul failed to read his wrong-one.

Taijul left in the 13th over to add his name to the list of disappointed Barisal batsmen today

Sylhet Super Stars allrounder Ravi Bopara three-wicket burst in the tenth over reduced Barisal to 37 for 7, and signaled another lopsided match for BPL.

Mehedi Maruf tried to glide the ball down to third man and only managed to edge it behind to Mushy who couldn’t hold back his joy! The third wicket down in the over and Sylhet are certainly on top.

Prasanna was the sixth man down for the wretched Bulls, as he dragged the ball from Bopara on to his stumps. The Sri Lanka shaped to cut a ball that was not short at all. He was also cramped for room.

Bopara was getting the ball to move off the wicket, just enough to trouble the opposing batsmen on a cloudy, slightly cool day at Dhaka.

Mehedi Maruf began Ravi Bopara’s deadly third over by throwing his wicket away to a silly shot. He could only feed an outside edge to Mushfiq after scoring four runs.

Rubel broke the back of Barisal’s batting order after he removed their in-form captain Mahmudullah for only 2 in the seventh over.

Mahmudullah manufactured some room, stepped out but only managed to hit as far as Sohail Tanvir. His side were all at sea by now.

With Barisal already staggering from the early blows, Rubel struck in the fifth over to compound Bulls’ misery against the spirited Super Stars.

Rony Taluldar tried to play a leg-side flick but gave a return catch to Rubel off a leading edge, and left the field shaking his head after scoring three runs.

The fourth over saw Sylhet take control of the match with crucial wickets in the bag.

Just after smashing a six, Chris Gayle fell the next ball as the couldn’t get the power behind his lofted shot and saw Nazmul take a tumbling catch at long-on.

Gayle Force was limited to eight runs from eight balls in his first outing of BPL-2015.

The potentially explosive partnership of Lewis and Gayle failed to fire for Barisal Bulls, as the Sylhet new ball bowlers didn’t allow them any freebies.

Sohail Tanvir was the money early and kept the West Indian openers quiet. Evin Lewis attempted a forceful pull to break the shackles but ended up losing his shape, form and wicket.

Lewis dragged the ball to the mid-on region where Razzak didn’t make any mistake.

Sylhet Super Stars captain Shahid Afridi won the toss and decided to field against the Barisal Bulls reinforced with the arrival of Chris Gayle.

Barisal Bulls

Al-Amin Hossain, Taijul Islam, Mehedi Maruf, Rony Talukdar (Wicketkeeper), Sajedul Islam, S Prasanna, Mohammad Sami, Mahmudullah (Captain), Sabbir Rahman, CH Gayle and E Lewis

Sylhet Super Stars

Mushfiqur Rahim (Wicketkeeper), Rubel Hossain, Abdur Razzak, Nurul Hasan, Mohammad Shahid, Junaid Siddique, Nazmul Hossain Milon, Sohail Tanvir, EMDY Munaweera, Shahid Afridi (Captain) and RS Bopara

Barisal batters hope for a good show in the final match today.File Photo: STAR