Minister Dhaka narrowly escaped from a shocking defeat in a low scoring encounter against Khulna Tigers in the Bangabandhu BPL on Wednesday at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium.
It was very important match for Dhaka to keep their hope alive for playoffs stage but to cross the paltry winning target had to play 19.2 overs when they lost their previous match to Chottagram Challengers by three runs.
On the day also it looked that they were going to face a deep trouble when they needed 11 runs in the last over but Shuvagata Hom just set aside all fears with towering a couple of sixes in first two balls in the over to win the match.
However, deciding to bat first after winning the toss, Khulna Tigers saw huge early damage when their five batters in a row, including Andre Fletcher and Soumya Sarker could not score a double figure, though Sikandar Raza at the middle just recued them.
Among the Khulna Tigers’ batters, besides 64 runs from Sikandar Raza none could stand against the bowling attack of Minister Dhaka as they (Khulna Tigers) could manage only 129 runs for eight wickets in stipulated 20 overs.
The dashing openers Andre Fletcher and Somya Sarker, who looked in fierce mood coming to open the innings to help Khulna Tigers to a easy win in their previous match against Sylhet Sunrisers, was got out very shortly on the day against Dhaka.
Soumya, was the first batter to get out for one run facing three balls and Fletcher followed him scoring six runs with playing 12 balls.
Soumya was the victim of Ruyel Miah when Arafat Sunny had the most valuable bats of Andre Fletcher.
Apart from the dismal show of Fletcher and Soumya, third and number four bats also left the pitch displaying horrible batting display pushing the team into deep trouble with Khulna Tigers were then 32 for five on the board.
Jaker Ali and Yasir Ali, who came to rescue Khulna from ashes, looked irresponsible like the openers when they just offered their wickets. Jaker was run for five runs and Yasir for a duck.
Sikandar Raza, the only batter could bat with some courage at the middle when the most valuable 64 runs of the Khulna innings came from his bat. Sikander Raza man from Zimbabwe featured his innings with four sixes and five boundaries before being caught out by Shamsur Rahman off Fazalhaq Farooqi.
Khulna Tigers could score 129 runs riding on Sikandar Raza innings when the other notable contributors of the team were Mushfiqur Rahim with 12, Mehdi Hasssan 17 and Thisara Perea scored 12 runs.
Replying to cross a paltry total of 129 runs, Minister Group Dhaka also struggled much when they had to play 19.2 overs, left only four balls of 20 overs to reach the wining target and lost five wickets.
Tamim Iqbal, the inform and the most dependable hard hitter, who has been performing frequently and playing important role in the Dhaka Ministers win, could not shine on the day as Nabil Samad did not let him to go for long with taking his wicket for six.
Imran Uzzaman, opening partner of Tamim also got out for six run and Dhaka looked under huge threat losing two wickets for 12 runs. But captain Mahmud Ullah Riyad accompanied by Jahrul Islam cautiously batted to halt the damage and though were a bit slow but their 57 runs partnership helped to go almost in safe side.
Jahurul scored 30 from 35 balls and Mahmud Ullah played 36 balls to score 34 runs.
After Jahurul and Mahmud Ullah getting out in a quick succession, Minister Dhaka were seemingly to fell into further difficulty but a quick 25 off 14 balls from Samsur Rahman, unbeaten 18 runs from nine ball of Shuvagata Hom and 10 off 7 from Azamatullah Zai secured a five wickets victory.
