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A ‘pressure-free’ Durbar Rajshahi thrashed Sylhet Strikers to jump into fourth place of the table after a hefty 65-run win in the ongoing BPL at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram on Friday. 

Rajshahi players got their due payment after they cancelled a scheduled practice session ahead of their first match of the Chattogram phase. Then BCB had to step up, and the franchise committed to meeting up the dues ahead of this match. 

Sunzamul Islam, the left-arm spinner, who got 3-25 to restrict Sylhet to 119 in 17.3 overs while chasing 184, said that the pressure was released as they got their due payments before this match. 

‘Of course the pressure will be there,’ he said after the match. ‘But when we come to the ground, we have to forget everything. Our job is to perform and play. [But] the pressure was released as we got the payment before the match. That’s why there is no pressure, and we tried to give our best.’ 

Sunzamul also said that a full-strength team helped their cause.

‘See, we need our payments. In addition to that, we played with four foreign players today, which means it was balanced with a full-strength team. We were able to play with a full-strength team and were able to execute our plans.’ 

After opting to bat first, Rajshahi got a solid foundation as the top four all contributed. Their first five partnerships were of 29 (19), 24 (24), 35 (15), 38 (26), and 27 (11). 

They were 146-4 with five overs still remaining and on the course of getting 200 on the board. Rajshahi, though, couldn’t capitalise on that as the last five overs yielded only 38 runs. Sylhet’s pacer Ruyel Miah gave only two runs in the final over of the innings. 

However, that didn’t motivate the Sylhet batters at all as they lost two wickets in the first three overs with Sunzamul striking in his first two overs. 

Zakir Hasan (39 off 28) and George Munsey (20 off 22) added 58 runs off 43 balls for the third wicket. But Sylhet’s batting tumbled again once that partnership was broken. 

Sylhet lost their last seven wickets for just 48 runs to suffer their fifth defeat of the season. 

Ariful Haque, Sylhet’s captain, later lamented the foreign players for their underperformance for the team’s continued failure. 

‘This was chaseable in this type of wicket,’ said Ariful. ‘But our foreigners aren’t supporting us at all. Our top order is based on the foreign players. If they don’t perform, forget 180; we won’t even be able to chase 150 runs.’