Shakib sparkles brightest in hostile Chattogram

There's an old adage which says 'When the going gets tough, the tough get going' and Shakib Al Hasan has done exactly that in hostile environments for the Chattogram phase for Rangpur Riders in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL). 

Batting with literally one eye due to an ongoing eye problem, the world's no.1 ranked all-rounder put in some of his best performances in front of packed Chattogram crowds at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, all mostly chanting against him and jeering him.

His performances during the BPL were already good, but with the eye problem which comes from stress and requires psychotherapy, he was batting as low as at no.9 for Rangpur at times and playing almost only as a bowler. 

It prompted his Rangpur teammate Jimmy Neesham to say that Shakib is good enough to bat with one eye and bowl even if he couldn't see.

But that all seemed to change in Chattogram for the 36-year-old left-hander.

In his first game, he scored 69 from 31 balls with the bat and took 2-30 with the ball as Ranpur won big against Khulna Tigers.

In his second game, Shakib scored 62 from 39 balls and was tidy with 0-30 in his four overs defending 188 and helping Rangpur defeat the home side Chattogram Challengers by 18 runs.

The third match was the big one against Tamim Iqbal's team Fortune Barishal.

With each match, the jeers and chants against Shakib intensified, to the point where there was constant jeering even when he was shown on the big screen or just out in the field to train ahead of the match. 

But in this game, the crowd was the most heated as it was against Chattogram's Tamim in Chattogram and given their off-field issues. 

The organisers and sponsors, realising that this was the big-money draw, had two massive sponsored pictures of Tamim and Shakib side-by-side on the stadium wall.

In this game, Shakib took the wicket of Tamim with his very first ball when Tamim was batting fluently on 33 from 20 balls.

Shakib would finish with figures of 1-25 in his four overs and keep Barishal down to 151.
In the run chase, Shakib scored 29 from just 15 balls but his dismissal opened Pandora's Box. 

Tamim would mock the celebration that Shakib did by clenching his fist after dismissing Tamim there.

Perhaps spurred on by the home crowd chanting against Shakib, that brought out a side from Tamim that many felt he was suppressing for a long time.

Rangpur would go on to win that game too and qualify for the playoffs there. 

After the match, fans of Tamim and Shakib would gather outside the stadium chanting their names and extra police needed to be present there to ensure there were no physical altercations between the two sets, with the majority of them being Tamim fans.

Some of the fans carried a big sign which said 'We want Tamim back in the national team'.
Despite all that, it was Shakib who stood head and shoulders above the rest and fed off the jeers from the crowd. 

In the fourth and final match, defending champions Comilla Victorians did get the better of Shakib's Rangpur and here Shakib, for the first time, failed with the bat, scoring 24 from 19 balls.

But he turned up with the ball to put in his best performance, taking 3-20 in his four overs and made Comilla sweat for that 151-run target before Andre Russell's fireworks. 

Controversies and Shakib have been a match made in heaven for a while now, and dividing fans has been a result of that, and that will continue as he is set to miss the next international series against Sri Lanka in March because of his eye condition.

He is, however, rumoured to be playing in the domestic Dhaka Premier League for Abahani at that time.

Shakib, at this rate, will be the Player of the Tournament in the BPL this season and there will be question marks over him not playing.
His performances, and the Shakib-Tamim rivalry though, have brought fans into the stands and given this season's BPL, and especially the Chattogram phase some extra spice.