Yasir, Akbar star as Dhaka register back-to-back wins
After losing three matches in a row, Beximco Dhaka have made a strong comeback winning back-to-back games in the Bangabandhu T20 Cup 2020.
Their latest, 25-run, victory came against Minister Group Rajshahi at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on Friday.
In a surprising move, Dhaka sent offspinner Nayeem Hasan to open the innings with Mohammad Naim. But it did not work as Nayeem fell for one in the first over of the game.
Despite the early damage, Dhaka posted a challenging 175 runs riding on Yasir Ali (67), Akbar Ali (45), and Mushfiqur Rahim (37).
Three of the first four Dhaka batsmen failed to reach two-digit scores as Nayeem, Naim and Tanzid Hasan fell for 1, 9, and 2. Two of them fell prey to right-arm pacer Mukidul Islam who ended up taking two wickets for 38 runs in three overs.
Dhaka lost four wickets to reach 100 runs. However, Yasir and Akbar added100runs in the fifth wicket stand and helped their team posta challenging total, which eventually proved to be a tough one for Rajshahi.
In reply, Rajshahi were all out for 150 runs in 20 overs despite a well-fought partnership of 67 runs by Rony Talukdar and Fazle Mahmud Rabbi.They paired up as Rajshahi lost three wickets for 15 runs and parted ways after at 82.
Rony fell for 40 while Mahmud recorded his first fifty of this competition - 58 off 40 with five fours and three sixes.
Next, Mahmud went to clear Muktar Ali for a boundary through the onside, only tosky an easy catch toTanzid.
Muktar Ali scalped four wickets conceding 37 runs in four overs while Shafiqul Alam bagged three conceding 31 runs in four overs.
With this win, Dhaka moved one place up in the points table surpassing Fortune Barishal.
They now have four points from two wins in five games while Rajshahi lost three matches in a row, and they are now at number four in the points table with four points from the same number of games.
Due to a higher run rate, Dhaka topped Rajshahi, who also have four points from two wins in five matches.