Sports Desk:

Chittagong Kings vs Fortune Barishal was supposed to be the biggest match of the ongoing Chattogram phase in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL).

The home team playing against a star-studded Barishal side led by their local boy Tamim Iqbal. The match had everything to be a blockbuster on the field.

Even there was huge support for Barishal on the day, cheering for Tamim. The atmosphere was buzzing. But the match was anything but exciting on the field.

Barishal restricted Chittagong to 121/8 before chasing down the target quite comfortably with 6 wickets and 3.1 overs to spare.

There were moments of brilliance, especially by the Barishal bowlers, and a bit of excitement regarding Tamim’s runout and a little collapse followed by it. But the match failed to live up to its expectations.

There was one man though who stood tall amid the pressure and expectations – Dawid Malan. He scored an unbeaten 56 off 41 balls to take the team home on a ‘patchy’ wicket.

Prior to the match, Malan had expressed his frustration over not getting near to no chance in the playing eleven in Dhaka and Sylhet phases.

Malan, who retired from international cricket after featuring in 114 matches for England across all formats, had played only one match before Sunday’s match in the ongoing tournament despite being available from the very beginning.

HE SURELY HAD A LOT TO PROVE.

And on the day, the pressure was mounting on him after he exchanged a few heated words with Barishal captain Tamim after the latter was run out in the fourth over of Barishal’s chase. After Tamim’s dismissal, Barishal lost their way for a while losing a few quick wickets and leaving the Barishal fans a bit worried despite a modest target of 122.

It would have been a mess if Malan were dismissed after that run-out incident. But he kept on going.  He kept his cool and anchored the innings brilliantly while building an unbeaten 69-run partnership with Mohammad Nabi for the fifth wicket. He hit three boundaries and two maximums on his way.

Apart from Malan, there were Ripon Mondol and Faheem Ashraf who picked up three wickets each earlier to stamp authority with the ball. Fahim Ashraf, especially, with his wickets in the top order didn’t let Chittagong cut loose in the first 10 overs of their innings. Barishal skipper Tamim Iqbal, after the match, said it was good to have someone standing tall till the end to finish the match for the team. But he also said that having a group of players performing each match is more needed than depending on one or two players to perform every day.

“You want to see someone step up in every match. I’m not looking for just one or two specific players to contribute in every game because if they fail, it will create problems. If everyone contributes, it’s a positive sign for the team,” Tamim said after the match.

The win took Barishal to the second place in the table with 5 wins from 7 matches. They lost 2 matches in the ongoing tournament, both to Rangpur Riders, who are currently unbeaten in the campaign with 8 wins in 8 matches so far.