Lewis blitz hands Khulna Tigers massive win over Fortune Barishal
So far, all the teams that have batted second, have won the match in the BPL so far.
When Khulna Tigers had to chase 188 for victory on a Mirpur surface that is a deathbed for batters, few would have fancied their chances, much less winning by eight wickets with 12 balls to spare.
But that's exactly what they did thanks to Evin Lewis' whirlwind 22-ball 53 against Fortune Barishal in match 6 of the 10th edition of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) on Monday evening.
There were handy contributions of 63 not out from 44 balls from captain Anamul Haque, 41 from 36 balls from Afif Hossain and 25 not out from just 10 balls from Shai Hope to ace what could have been a very difficult chase.
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So far, all the teams that have batted second, have won the match in the BPL.
Tamim Iqbal, captain of Barishal felt they batted 'exceptionally'.
"We could have batted perhaps a bit better and scored maybe 10 more runs but credit to their bowlers, especially Faheem Ashraf, who bowled really well at the death. Our bowlers could have done better with some of the no-balls but it's just a bad day at the office for them and these things happen but I have full confidence in them to bounce back and we have a great unit," Tamim said in the post-match interview.
And at first, Khulna Tigers would have hoped to keep Barishal down to a lower total but they had no answers to Mushfiqur Rahim's 39-ball 68 not out.
The experienced wicketkeeper-batter had support from his captain Tamim Iqbal who scored 40 from 33 balls and became the first player to score 3000+ runs in BPL history.
Mahmudullah also played a handy knock of 27 from just 19 balls but in the end it was not enough as dew crept in and had a part to play too.
