The departure of Sylhet Sunrisers has already been confirmed. Their opponent in this match was Chittagong Challengers, but they also wanted Khulna Tigers and Minister Dhaka. Winning the play-off is sure, the equation that was in front of Chittagong.
However, in the first match of the day, the team chose to chase the run after winning the toss. The pressure increased even more in Sylhet’s collection of 165 runs. Then in the tournament, the best batsman of Chittagong, Will Jacques, ignited, this opener played one of the best innings of the season.
The team passed unbeaten on 92 off 56 balls, Sylhet tried to return to the match but could not stop Chittagong in the end.
With the victory of 4 wickets, Chittagong secured the play-off in their last match in the group stage. The fate of Khulna Tigers and Minister Dhaka now depends on the second match of the day.
If they lose to Comilla Victorians in that match, Khulna will be the opponent of Chittagong in the play-off eliminator match, and if they lose, only Dhaka will go to the last four.
Sylhet came in their last match and showed one of the best performance in batting today. After the top order, the middle order ignited. After Colin Ingram, Enamul Haque, Lendl Simmons, Ravi Bopara, Mosaddek Hossain brought the highest score of Sylhet this season by batting first.
Ingram and Enamul gave a good start to Sylhet. Mehdi Hasan Ingram hit 24 off 19 balls before being bowled to cut Miraj and his opening partnership with Enamul was 41 runs. Sylhet lost to Mizanur Rahman in the last over of Powerplay and became the first victim of Mrityunjay Chowdhury. However, 50 runs were scored in the first 6 overs.
Despite losing 2 wickets quickly, Sylhet kept the pace of run in the middle overs with the help of Enamul and Lendl Simmons. He added 54 runs off 36 balls. In one over, however, Mrityunjay returned two wickets in 75 fours and 2 sixes off 42 balls.
However, Bopara and Mosaddeq did not let Sylhet understand the loss of 2 wickets quickly. He made 40 off 41 balls for the fifth wicket. After 18 overs, 19.2 overs — these 20 balls made 56 runs.
In the last over, before catching the ball of Shariful Islam, Bopara made 44 runs from 21 balls, hit 4 sixes with 2 fours. Mosaddeq, who was unbeaten on 35 in the end, hit two sixes with three fours in his 22-ball innings.
Chasing Chittagong’s run, Zakir Hasan had a stormy start, but did not last long. After hitting a six to Sohag Gazi, he batted again and was caught at the backward point for 16 off 9 balls. Afif Hossain did not last long either, before becoming the second victim of Sohag, the Chittagong captain managed to score 6 runs off 6 balls.
Chadwick Walton’s partnership with Jacques, however, gave them relief. In the last over of Powerplay, 21 runs came from AKS Swadhin, 3 fours and 1 six of Jax. After hitting leg-spinner Jubayer Hossain for two sixes in the 12th over, Walton was run out for 35 off 23 balls.
Going to take a single from mid-off, Bopara took the ball with a dive and broke the stumps in a straight throw. Walton’s pairing with Jacques had earlier scored 69 off 41 balls.
The role of Jacques was different in the next two pairs – he was the one who attacked Benny Howell on the way to add 35 runs from 23 balls, then he was in the role of assistant with Shamim Hossain in the stormy pair of 26 runs from 11 balls.
After Howell made 6 runs from 6 balls, Shamim played a cameo run of 21 runs from 8 balls and Alauddin Babu returned both of them. Ingram took Howell’s catch well in the long on, first holding the ball and throwing it to the side before crossing the boundary to keep the balance, then completing the catch back. Standing on the boundary at mid-wicket, Sohag also took Shamim’s catch well.