DHAKA, Feb 2, 2024 (BSS)—Sylhet Strikers finally snapped a painful five-match 
losing streak today after beating Durdanto Dhaka by 15 runs in their last match of 
the Sylhet phase of Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) at Sylhet International 
Cricket Stadium. 

Mohammad Mithun who was chosen to lead the team after Mashrafe Bin 
Mortaza took a break from the BPL to join the 12th Parliament as new whip, led 
from the front with 46 ball-59, laced with four fours and three sixes—an innings 
which steered the side to competitive 142-6 from a precarious 13-3. 

Zimbabwe recruit Richard Ngarava then did the rest, claiming 4-28 to restrict 
Dhaka to 127-9. 

Sylhet came to play this match with new set of jersey in a bid to mark the month 
of February, a month which is significant for Bangladesh people due to the 
language movement. 

It seemed that the change of jersey also changed the fortune of Sylhet. But 
initially it looked all together a similar story as Sylhet tasted yet another top order 
collapse to be reduced to 13-3 after being put into bat first.

Dhaka’s pacer Shoriful Islam, who has been going through the form of his life, 
was the wrecker-in-chief as he took all three wickets in his first two overs. He 
removed Shamsur Rahman Shuvo for a five-ball duck before extending Najmul 
Hossain Shanto’s lean patch, rattling his stump for 3. In his next delivery he gave 
Zakir 
Hasan a first-ball duck to stand on his second hat-trick in this BPL. However 
Mithun successfully negotiated his hat-trick delivery and started rebuilding job in 
astute fashion. 

Mithun shared 57-run with Samit Patel, who made a run-a-ball-32 to repair the 
initial damage before going on berserk to keep the runs flowing. Ariful Haque 
gave the finishing touch with 9 ball-21,hitting three sixes. Ariful and Mithun took 
22 runs in the penultimate over against the day’s best bowler Shoriful Islam and it 
made the eventual difference. Shoriful though took the revenge by dismissing 
Ariful but the damage was done by then.

Nagarava thereafter got into act, getting the better of Dhaka openers Saim Ayub 
(13) and inform Naim Sheikh (2) to leave them at 19-2. Like Mithun, no one from 
Dhaka could make the repair job successfully as they lost wickets at regular 
intervals. 

Fast bowler Rejaur Rahman Raja who took 2-41, gave Nagarava the support to 
slice Dhaka’s batting line up. However, Taskin Ahmed’s 11 ball-27 with six fours 
was the other major contribution, which only reduced the margin of the defeat. 

After this defeat, Dhaka now languished at bottom of the table with just one win 
from five matches. Sylhet’s first win in six matches boosted their run rate and 
helped them move one place up from the bottom.