Mayers mauls Sylhet as Barishal earn important win
Four years after his momentous Test debut where he broke numerous records en route to his masterful double fourth-innings double century at the same ground, the powerful and elegant West Indies dasher put on an exhibition of beautiful strokeplay on his BPL debut and later showed off his new-ball skills.
Kyle Mayers produced a superb all-round performance to fire Fortune Barishal to an important win by 18 runs over sixth-placed Sylhet Strikers he ongoing Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) 2024 at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram.
Four years after his momentous Test debut where he broke numerous records en route to his masterful double fourth-innings double century at the same ground, the powerful and elegant West Indies dasher put on an exhibition of beautiful strokeplay on his BPL debut and later showed off his new-ball skills.
Mayers returned 4-1-12-3 following a well-made 48 and the match-winning performance earned him a Player of the Match award. He was supported ably by Mushfiqur Rahim.
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Batting first, Mushfiqur and Mayers helped Barishal post 183 for six in their 20 overs. After a rather sedate powerplay, Mayers added 84 off just eight overs to provide the much-needed impetus to their innings.
Left-handed Mayers, who had not been in good touch of late, was at his best during his 31-ball stay where he hit three fours and as many sixes but fell just two short of his fifty on his BPL debut.
On the other hand, BPL great Mushfiqur shrugged off the indifferent recent form to notch up a timely half-century. On his way to a 32-ball-52, the wicketkeeper-batter reeached the milestone of 100 sixes in the tournament. His tally of 100 is only bettered by his Barishal teammate Tamim Iqbal and Chris Gayle, who played the BPL for Barishal, Chattogram, Dhaka and Rangpur-based franchises.
Mehidy Hasan Miraz, who has shown good power-hitting prowess in the tournament, played a handy cameo of 15 off seven balls to take the total past 180.
Fast bowler Tanzim Hasan Sakib picked up three wickets but was expensive, giving away 48 runs in four overs.
Mayers then helped Barishal reduce Sylhet to 33-4 in the seventh over and they could never recover from there. Benny Howell and Ariful Islam fought towards the end but the match had already gone out of their hands.
Howell (53 off 32) and Ariful (57 off 31) threatened a late fightback but the asking rate was too high in the end for them to chase the total down. Eventual they reached 165-8, 18 short of the total posted by Barishal.
