The Sylhet Strikers have shown to be a formidable opponent in the ninth season of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL). On January 10 in the Shere Bangla National Stadium, the Sylhet Strikers beat the Dhaka Dominators by 62 runs. With this victory, the Strikers won all the matches they played.
When they played the match, the Dhaka Dominators won the toss and elected to field. While they did their best, Sylhet Strikers had superb batters. When Najmul Hossain Shanto went to bat, Muktar Ali ended up with an injured right hand. So far, no update has been given on his condition.
Najmul Hossain Shanto and Towhid Hridoy were the stars of the match. Shanto was one of the openers of the game and hit 57 runs for the Strikers. Hridoy, on the other hand, hit 84 runs. Unfortunately, at the end of the ninth wicket, the in-form batter was injured and had to be brought to the hospital.
At the time of Hridoy’s injury, the Strikers were at a total of 139 runs. While the Strikers’ batters were unable to hit above 11 runs, the team managed to end with a total of 201/8.
Meanwhile, the Dhaka Dominators were unable to reach a half-century. What they did manage was a combined score of 86 from Mohammad Mithun(42) and Nasir Hossain(44). Outside of the 40s struck by Mithun and Hossain, the highest amount of runs that the Dominators were able to bat was 12.
Added with 3 ducks and less than 10 runs from other bats, the Dominators ended with a total of 139/10.
Between the two teams, the Strikers’ bowlers also showed a great performance and dismissed nine batters. The Dominators were close but only dismissed eight batters.
This was the Dhaka Dominators’ (known as the Minister Group Dhaka in the tournament) second BPL match. Their first match was on January 7 against the Khulna Tigers. The Dominators won that match by 6 wickets with 5 balls left.
Currently, the Dominators are 4th in the rankings with 2 points. The Strikers are at number 1 with zero losses and eight points.
In the previous BPL in 2022, the Dominators were 5th in the rankings with 2 wins, 2 losses, 1 draw, and 9 points. The Strikers, meanwhile, were last in the rankings with 4 losses, 1 draw, and 9 points.
Given that the Dominators only had two matches so far, not much can be said about their performance. The Strikers meanwhile have a standout player in Towhid Hridoy. In all the matches so far, Hridoy became a top-scorer with 195 runs from three innings with an average of 65 and a strike rate of 166.67.
For their next match, the Dhaka Dominators will be going against the Chattogram Challengers. At this time, the Challengers also had two matches and are ranked 4th with 2 points.
The Strikers (unless the winners of the next matches will change things) will be playing against the Dominators once again on January 16, Monday. The next BPL 2023 match will be between the Chattogram Challengers and Fortune Barishal.