BPL 2022 | Change in captaincy fails to bring change in fortunes for Sylhet Sunrisers

Change in captaincy did not bring much change in the fortunes for Sylhet Sunrisers as they lost yet another match to totter at the bottom of the table in the Bangladesh Premier League 2022.

If that was not enough, their new captain Ravi Bopara was on the end of a possible ball tampering controversy that saw a 5-run penalty for Sylhet and might incur further sanctions after the match officials sit with the matter after the match.

Sylhet were defeated through and through in either innings as Khulna proved to be much better than them in crunch moments. First Sylhet got blown away by a Soumya Sarkar counterattack in the first innings, and then later could not chase the target down owing to some exceptional fielding from the Khulna side.

However, Khulna did survive a last over scare as tailender Alauddin Babu hit three sixes from the first three balls while looking to get 30 from the final over. The last three balls weren’t so fortuitous and Sylhet lost the game by 15 runs.

Bringing down a target of 183 was always going to be difficult, but Sylhet had a good start to the innings with Anamul Haque taking the attack to the opposition. After a good powerplay, Khulna got their bowling back in order and started building pressure from the eighth over of the game.

With no boundaries on offer, the onus fell on Anamul to deliver, but he chipped a ball to mid off that ended his stay of 47 from 33 balls. Two quick wickets of Mohammad Mithun and Ravi Bopara built further pressure and Sylhet were down by four wickets for 73 runs in 12.2 overs.

A rebuilding act was taken up by Colin Munro and former captain Mosaddek Hossain and lasted till the early part of 18th over before Munro was dismissed trying to slog at everything. He scored 37 off 28 balls.

Needing 30 from the final over, three sixes in the first three balls bought Sylhet close, but it would have been too much to ask considering that they had hit a total of 5 sixes before that in the game.

Earlier in the day Sylhet had a great start to their day dismissing the dangerous Andre Fletcher and Mahedi Hasan when Khulna had just one run on board. Fletcher fell victim to an ill-judged run and was run out on the striker’s end by Alauddin Babu. It looked like Ravi Bopara’s tenure as a captain would start on a good note, but Somya Sarkar dug deep, first with Yasir Ali (23 off 18) and then with Mushfiqur Rahim.

After Ali’s dismissal in the final ball of the powerplay, Sarkar and Rahim built the innings back very patiently soaking in the pressure for the first few overs. The attack began from the 13th over of the game where the batsmen started hitting at least one boundary in the over and kept the fielders busy while converting ones into twos. The risk taking mixed with a little fortune kept the scoreboard flowing and Khulna had more than made up for their run rate by the 19th over of the game.

With Somya Sarkar taking on the quicks and Rahim hitting the spinners, the duo added 131 runs between them in just 84 balls. They took the score up to 182/3 to make sure that it would be near impossible for Sylhet to reach against a bowling attack of Thisara Perera and Khaled Ahmed.

With the win Khulna did the double over Sylhet this season and now stand at third in the points table with four wins under their belt.