Will Batters Blaze in BPL During Day Game at Sylhet? 

“The wicket is good this time. The fault is ours (not being able to score runs),” Durdanto Dhaka’s skipper Mossadek Hossain said without any hesitation after his side posted 136 runs for eight in their opening game against Chattogram Challengers. Challengers batted till 19th over to win the game and their representative Tanzid Hasan echoed the same sentiment put up by Mossadek. 

“We batted badly in the game and it is our fault not wicket or anything,” the left handed opener said.

Sylhet Strikers skipper Mashrafee bin Mortaza also did not blame the wicket despite scoring 120 runs against Rangpur Riders and if someone keeps his ear at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur he can hear it is repeated time and again in the recent past. Mirpur cannot be blamed and though it had something to offer for the bowlers but it can’t overshadow the failure of the batsmen for not putting runs on the board in the eight games played so far in the eight games at home of cricket to complete the first-phase in Dhaka before moving to Sylhet for the second phase, scheduled from January 26.

A statistic is enough to understand the situation. In only three of the eight matches, the first innings runs have gone beyond 150 hundred and all three matches were played at night. The ball is skidding due to dew and it is skidding that comes to the bat while bowlers also find it difficult to grip wet balls. Especially the work of spinners becomes difficult in night conditions. But there was no significant difference in bounce between night and day conditions. Mohammad Naeem Sheikh and Imrul Kayes showed in the first match that it is possible to score runs even in the day’s match. Babar Azam, Azmatullah Omarzai also solved the mystery of the day with very fluent batting.

These four batsman examples match the analysis of Mohammad Ashraful, another former captain of the national team and currently one of the best TV analyst in town.

“The wicket is very good this time. But the problem is if you don’t have skill you can’t run. If there was a good player, he would have seen them taking out runs on this wicket,” said Ashraful.

“The ball is coming into the bat very nicely but that will hardly matter if you don’t know how to score runs like for example when Al Amin (Challengers pacer) ball was swinging it won’t be dividend just to put the bat there but a square cut can be played on such deliveries but I didn’t see anything like that in the batters,” he said.

Khulna and Barisal match showed what can happen in the night match as, Khulna completely blew away the experienced Barisal in that fight by taking advantage of the conditions

Anamul defeated Barisal by eight wickets after scoring 187 runs that they put up on the back of Mushfiqur’s 68 runs and that too with two overs left in the innings. Evin Lewis scored 53 runs off 22 balls that day while 87 runs were scored in the power play, which is the highest in BPL history.

Anamul Haque and Afif Hossain also scored runs in that match and voth had to play risk-free cricket to chase the mountain of runs and both of them did a great job. Their partnership of 75 runs off 59 balls knocked Barisal out of the match. Afif got out with 41 runs off 36 balls but it did make a big impact while Anamul made half-century in just 35 balls and more importantly did not return back to the dressing room without completing the job, making unbeaten 63 runs  decorated with three fours and as many sixes.

Mushfiq showed what to do in night conditions in the last match of the Dhaka phase as the experienced cricketer gave another great innings against Comilla Victorians keeping the rhythm of the previous night. Mushfiqur’s innings of 62 runs off 44 balls had 6 fours and 2 sixes. Mushfiqur’s batting skills against spin in an innings with a strike rate of 140 was worth watching. Especially against spin, extra cover and midwicket boundaries only showed the quality of his skill while handling the spinners.

Zakir Hossain’s innings of 70 runs will also be discussed as this batsman from Sylhet played a great innings of 70 runs off 43 balls against Chittagong. Zakir hit 7 fours and 1 six in an innings of about 163 strike rate. That is the highest individual run score in BPL so far. However, on the same day, Shahadat Hossain of Chittagong scored an unbeaten innings of 57 runs from 39 balls in pursuit of runs. This is his first fifty in T20 career but all these examples are coming from night matches so can BPL gets into the groove in the days game remains to be seen Sylhet phase.