Dhaka Dynamites continued their dominating run in the sixth Bangladesh Premier League as they crushed Khulna Titans by 105 runs to secure their second successive win in Mirpur on Tuesday (Jan 8).
Afghan hard-hitting opener Hazratullah Zazai set up the win for Dhaka, hitting a blistering 57 off 36 balls, which coupled with a few little cameos from Rony Talukdar, Kieron Pollard and Andre Russell, reached Dhaka to 192-6 after they were sent to bat first.
Skipper Shakib Al Hasan led Dhaka’s bowling attack from the front as he bagged 3-18 to help his side restrict Khulna to 87-9 in the 13th over with last man Ali Khan unable to bat due to injury.
This was Khulna’s second consecutive defeat in as many matches after going down by eight runs to Rangpur Riders in their tournament opener on Sunday.
Zazai, who also scored a fifty in Dhaka’s opening match, gave the side an impressive start once again, putting 67 runs in the opening stand with Sunil Narine, who made 19 before being dismissed by David Wiese.
Zazai, however, survived a close call on 13 thanks to the third umpire, who turned down Khulna’s review despite him looking like edging Wiese to wicketkeeper in plain sight in the third over of the innings.
Zazai seemingly took confidence from his lucky reprieve and hit Shoriful Islam for 27 runs in an over later with three sixes and two fours to add momentum to Dhaka innings.
‘Today was a different day and the wicket was lot better for batting. It was just little bit difficult. So I just managed’ Zazai told reporters after the match.
Rony took inspiration from Zazai’s innings and hit three fours and two sixes in his innings of 28 off 18 balls before he was dismissed by Mahmudullah.
Paul Stirling dismissed Zazai and Shakib (0) in consecutive balls to halt Dhaka’s scoring spree but Russell and Pollard made 25 off 22 and 27 off 16 respectively to help Dhaka reach the highest innings of the tournament so far.
Khulna lost their way in the second over of the chase when Stirling was dismissed for one and could not overcome the early loss of their half-centurion from the previous match.
Junaed Siddique struck 31 off 16 balls but Khulna kept losing wickets at regular intervals before their innings came to an abrupt end with three wickets falling in the 13th over, bowled by Narine (2-20).
‘When we started to bowl we didn’t execute our plans and the fielding was [also bad] so as we missed a couple of chances as well, said Khulna’s South African pacer David Wiese.
‘Batting was always tough to chase down 190 and we needed to get a good start and maintain that whole time,’ he added.
Hazratullah Zazai of Dhaka Dynamites was adjudged the Man of the Match for his outstanding batting performance.
