Dominant Barishal to bat first against hapless Dhaka

Sylhet Strikers captain Nasir Hossain and Fortune Barishal captain Shakib Al Hasan during the toss ahead of their BPL9 match at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium on 31 January, 2023Dhaka Dominators Facebook page

Fortune Barishal won the toss and opted to bat first against Dhaka Dominators in both teams' final Sylhet phase match of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) 2023 at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium on Tuesday.

Barishal, with six wins in eight games, are well on their way to securing a place in the qualifiers.

The Shakib Al Hasan-led side is currently second in the points-table and would like to win to reduce the gap with table-toppers Sylhet Strikers and create more separation with third placed Comilla Victorians.

Currently, Sylhet are four points ahead of Barishal and Comilla are trailing them by two points.

Dhaka, on the other hand, have no hopes of making it to the qualifiers after just two wins in nine games.

The Nasir Hossain-led side will be fighting for pride and to make sure they don’t finish at the bottom of the seven-team table.

In both team’s previous meeting in the group-stage, Barishal won by 13 runs.

Dhaka Dominators: Soumya Sarkar, Usman Ghani, Alex Blake, Mohammad Mithun(w), Nasir Hossain(c), Ariful Haque, Muktar Ali, Abdullah Al Mamun, Salman Irshad, Shoriful Islam, Amir Hamza

Fortune Barishal: Anamul Haque(w), Saif Hassan, Shakib Al Hasan(c), Mahmudullah, Iftikhar Ahmed, Ibrahim Zadran, Salman Hossain, Karim Janat, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Khaled Ahmed, Sunzamul Islam