BPL 3 Eliminator 1 Review: Barisal Bulls v Dhaka Dynamites, Bulls march a step closer to the finals

It was the Barisal Bull taking on the Dhaka Dynamites at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur for the first eliminator of the BPL 3. Yasir Shah replaced Ryan ten Doeschate in the Dynamites side while Bulls rested Mohammad Irfan to make place for Kumar Sangakkara.

Dhaka Dynamites won the toss and took the field first. Bulls started off on a rough note as Rony Talukdar lost his wicket being over aggressive. Gayle and Sabbir Rahman then took the game forward and ensured there was no further dent to the Bulls innings till the halfway stage of the first innings. Both the batsmen put up a partnership of 70 runs between them and steered the Bulls to a comfortable position after 10 overs.

However, Mustafizur Rahman removed the well-set and dangerous looking Chris Gayle (31 runs from 19 balls) to provide some relief to the Dynamites. Skipper Mahmudullah carried on in the same manner, but Sabbir lost his wicket to Nabil Samad soon. Mahmudullah (37 runs from 33 balls) got some support from Mehedi Mehruf (10 runs from 12 balls) and Rayad Emrit (9 runs from 10 balls). The Bulls could only put up 135 after 20 overs. There was a decent platform set by Gayle and Rahman for the rest of the batsmen to capitalize, but they could take advantage of it.

The target looked modest and the Dynamites began the chase in a perfect manner. Kevon Copper struck in the 4th over; a senseless flick and Abul Hasan lost his wicket. Mohammad Hafeez continued his bad run as he was also sent to the pavilion in the 6th over. Wickets fell in regular intervals as no batsman could build his innings. Sanga, the skipper, was also out cheaply. The middle order batted in an irresponsible manner. The Dynamites slowly let the game slip away from their hands.

For some time, the chase revolved around Malcolm Waller (18 runs from 10 balls) as he revived the hopes of chasing down the target for a brief period of time. But, Mehedi Maruf took the all important catch at mid-wicket region off the bowling of Taijul Islam to put a break to his cameo. The last over asked for 22 runs to win and there was no way Dynamites tail enders Hossain and Samad could hit it off Mohammad Sami’s over. The 20 overs were finally wrapped up and the Bulls won the game by 18 runs.

Dynamites were outplayed by the Bulls in every sense and looked over dependant on Sangakarra. DD never looked comfortable and choked themselves by letting the run rate climb up gradually. Bowling wise, Al-Amin Hossain (3/15) and Cooper (3/17) bowled brilliantly and shared six wickets between them. Taijul came in and also chipped two important wickets.

Barisal Bulls will now take on Rangpur Riders tomorrow in the second eliminator.

Brief scores:

Barisal Bulls: 135/5 in 20 overs (Sabbir Rahman 41; Mustafizur Rahman 2/21)

Dhaka Dynamites: 117/8 in 20 overs (Farhad Reza 20; Al-Amin 3/25)

Man of the Match: Al-Amin Hossain