Khulna Tigers defeated Fortune Barisal in the BPL 2023 match, thanks to the efforts of Mahmudul Hasan and Habibur Rahman. Hasan’s 43-ball 64 and Rahman’s explosive 30-run innings in just 9 balls helped Khulna secure a 6-wicket victory with three balls to spare. They successfully chased Barisal’s target of 170 runs.
In this match, Miraj captained Barisal for the first time in a BPL match. Winning the toss, he opted to bat first. The opening batsmen, Mahmudullah and Enamul Haque had a slow start, with the latter scoring 28 runs off 29 balls. Shakib Al Hasan also added 22 runs off 14 balls.
In the middle of their innings, the match was briefly interrupted by a power outage but resumed after a 10-minute halt. The innings were lifted by Ibrahim Zadran and Dwayne Pretorius, with Pretorius scoring a quick 48 runs off 29 balls and a 70-run partnership with Zadran in 37 balls.
For the bowling side, Saifuddin took two wickets in the last over, but Barisal could only score 21 runs in the last three overs, resulting in a total of 170 runs.
In reply, Sabbir Rahman was sent in as the new opener for Khulna, but he was dismissed for 2 runs by Pretorius. Hasan and Balbarni’s 28-run partnership with Shai Hope provided a strong foundation for Khulna, with Balbarni scoring 37 runs off 33 balls before being lbw by Khaled Ahmed.
Hasan and Yasir Ali continued to propel Khulna forward, with a 35-ball 55-run partnership. However, Yasir’s run-out ended the partnership, as he started running after Enamul’s throw from the wicketkeeper to Pretorius, but forgot about Mirage at mid-on who broke the stumps with a direct throw.
Khulna needed 52 runs off the last 24 balls, with Habibur Rahman’s two sixes in Ibadat Hossain’s 19th over bringing the score down to just 9 runs required in the last over. Habibur hit a catch wide long on for a four and then a six through midwicket to secure a thrilling victory for Khulna.
As per Sportnewsbd experts, FBA played the match as a practice match ahead of their eliminator. So, there was nothing to worry about losing a point. On the other side, Khulna Tigers took it seriously to chase down the target.