Mashrafe cameo takes Dhaka to 134
Rajshahi skipper Andre Russell won the toss and invited Dhaka to have a bat first.
A tight bowling performance from Rajshahi Royals along with Dhaka Platoon's exhibition clumsy batting and running between the wickets almost put Dhaka into big trouble in their first match of the Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) T20 2019, but a brief cameo from their skipper Mashrafe saw Dhaka reach 134-9 in the end.
Rajshahi skipper Andre Russell won the toss and invited Dhaka to have a bat first. Russell's decision seemed to be the right one as Dhaka kept on losing wickets during their innings and crawled towards their score of. Dhaka's main trouble came from their running between the wickets as they lost three of their wickets to run-outs.
Dhaka hoped for a good start and it looked like that when Anamul Haque and Tamim Iqbal hit a six and a four off Abu Jayed Chowdhury. But their progress was thwarted even before it blossomed as Abu Jayed struck back to send Tamim back to the hut.
Dhaka could have been in even more trouble if it was not for Alok Kapali, who dropped Laurie Evans at first slip off Russell, letting go of a glorious opportunity to put Dhaka in deep waters.
But Kapali redeemed himself in the last over of the powerplay as Evans played a shot alike to Tamim's, and found the veteran allrounder at cover-point to hand Farhad Reza his first wicket of this BPL.
Dhaka managed to score 41 in the powerplay but also lost a couple of wickets which put them in a tight spot.
Alok Kapali was on the receiving end of a catch drop when Farhad Reza missed a sitter at the long-on boundary after Anamul had chipped the ball in the air.
Dhaka were in a good position when Anamul along with Jaker Ali Anik put up a 39-run stand to take them to 78-2, but a flurry of wickets saw them lose four wickets for five runs. Jaker was the first to go as he was run out trying to steal a quick single, and then Thisara Perera was out off Taijul in the same over when Russell took a good catch at short mid-wicket.
Anamul was the next to follow as he dragged a short length delivery from Alok Kapali straight to Minhajul Afridi at the deep mid-wicket boundary before Afridi got dismissed for a golden duck when he attempted a loose shot to a wide Ravi Bopara delivery, only to gift Liton Das with an easy catch.
Ariful was the next to go back as he and Mahedi tried to take a cheeky single, only for Bopara to hit the stumps directly at the bowler's end to reduce Dhaka to 91-7.
Wahab hit the ball out of the park to bring up Dhaka's hundred, but another run-out saw Mahedi sent back to the pavilion as Dhaka lost their eighth wicket.
A brief cameo of 18 off 10 balls from Dhaka skipper Mashrafe, with help from Wahab Riaz's 19 off 12, made sure that Dhaka reached 134 which was a fighting total at Mirpur.
Brief score:
Dhaka Platoon: 134-9 (Anamul 38, Jaker 21, Wahab 19, Mashrafe 18*, Abu Jayed 2-43, Kapali 1-18, Bopara 1-15, Farhad 1-14)