Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

The unfashionable cousin of the BPL started this week.

Chattogram made an impressive debut - first poishing off Dhaka for 88 and then only needing 11 overs to win
Soumya Sarkar top scored with 44.

Chattogram are second in the table with Rajshahi winning 2 in 2

The batters will get the credit but it was Kamrul Islam's 4-fer that set Barishal up for their 5 wicket win over Rajshahi. Rabbi gutted the lower middle order and the tail to limit Rajshahi to 132. Barishal polished that off in 19 overs.

It was Barishal's first win and took them up to third whilst it was Rajshahi's first loss and they are now second.

Dhaka are looking down and out already as Shuvagata Hom's 3-13 helped limit them to 109 in a chase of 147. Dhaka are winless and rock bottom whilst Khulna are now mid-table.

On the other side of the coin, Chattogram beat Barishal for their third straight win.

It was the battle of the stragglers today as Dhaka beat Rajshahi today.

It was a strong bowling effort that won it for them - as has so often been the case in this tournament. Muktar Ali's 4-37 especially stands out as Rajshahi got all out for 150 in a chase of 175.

Khulna also beat Barishal who sit at the foot of the table.

Another couple of matches in this tournament today.

First up Mushfiqur Rahim led from the front to score 73* for Dhaka as they beat table toppers Chattogram by 7 runs. It is another win for Dhaka who are looking comfortably mid table.

Khulna won the second game of the day as they beat Rajshahi, one of the weaker sides in the tournament, by 5 wickets. Najmul Hossain Shanto was not assisted by the rest of his team as his 55 made up over a third of the total score of 145. Khulna sealed the win with 4 balls to spare as they move joint top with Chattogram.

Mispost...sorry

After missing the first game of the day where 441 runs were scored and a player scoring 109* ened up on the losing side, I tuned in to the evening game for a bit of a damp squib.

Khulna put up an ineffectual show with the bat, with no player scoring more than 35, and Chattogram were able to extend their lead at the top of the table and improve their NRR. Shoriful Islam was the pick of the bowlers with 3-34.

One of my cricketing bugbear is bowlers being overlooked for man of the match over batsmen's more average outputs. Dhaka beat Khulna today and Robiul Islam Robi got 5-27 and was overlooked by a batsman who made a 38 ball 56. Outrageous.

I have no such gripe with Soumya Sarkar's accolade for his score of 62 in 37 balls to help Chattogram beat bottom placed Barishal and extend their lead at the top of the table.

A rare occasion of the Man of the Match being (rightly) awarded to a player on the losing side. Barishal beat Dhaka today but if it were not for Mohammad Naim's 64 ball 105 their loss would have been even more stark. Other than Naim only one other player scored over 20 with 5 players out in single figures. He took 43 balls to get to fifty but the next fifty took only 17 balls.

Chattogram beat Rajshahi in the other match.

Chattogram were the best team in the league stages by some distance. However that matters not a jot in the knockouts.

Mashrafe Mortaza has only played in the latter stages of this tournament and blew Chattogram away with 5-35 in their chase of 210. They fell a woeful 47 runs short.

Chattogram get another bite of the cherry against Dhaka tomorrow.

Mustafizur Rahman, once a player held in such high esteem, showed an increasingly rarer flash of prowess today as he got 3-32 to take Chattogram to the final. This is the downside of this style of knockout as the final is now going to be the same as the first Semi-final. Could be a chance for Chattogram to exact revenge though.

Khulna repeated their Semi Final surprise by beating Chattogram in the final. Captain Mahmadullah got 70* on the way to Khukna's 155-7. It was a close run thing but Chattogram fell 3 runs short.