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Faheem Ashraf, Ripon Mondol, and Tanvir Islam shone with the ball while Dawid Malan hit a gritty fifty as Fortune Barishal cruised past Chittagong Kings to a six-wicket win in the ongoing BPL at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram on Sunday. 

Barishal chased down Chittagong’s 121-8 in 16.5 overs to leapfrog them from third to second place with Malan remaining unbeaten on 56 off 41 balls. 

The defending champions now have 10 points from seven games, six points behind table toppers Rangpur Riders, who have 16 points and have already confirmed their playoffs berth with eight successive wins. 

Chittagong, on the other hand, suffered their second defeat in a row after winning four consecutive matches. 

After being put into bat first, the port city outfit lost their way early in the innings as they became the first team in this BPL to lose five wickets inside the powerplay. 

It was Ripon who struck first to dismiss Usman Khan, and then Faheem joined the party to make Chittagong 39-5 at the end of the first six overs. 

The home team managed to put something beyond 120 thanks to captain Mohammad Mithun—who made 35 off 34 coming at four—and Arafat Sunny, who was unbeaten on 27 off 34 deliveries. 

Faheem took three for just 12, while Ripon spent 23 in his four overs to take the same number of wickets. Left-arm spinner Tanvir got two for 14. 

Chasing a moderate target, Barishal’s chase wasn’t easy at the beginning either. They lost Tamim Iqbal and Tawhid Hridoy in quick succession and were 28-2 after the powerplay. 

When Mushfiqur Rahim went down playing a reverse sweep soon after the powerplay, Chittagong saw a chance as the crowd was behind them. 

But Mahmudullah, hitting a couple of boundaries, eased the nerves a bit for Barishal. Malan was also there to see things off to the very end as the left-hander added an unbroken 69-run partnership off 44 balls with Mohammad Nabi. 

Malan, who was adjudged the player of the match, credited Mahmudullah and Nabi for their contribution. 

‘Mahmudullah also took some pressure off hitting a couple of boundaries,’ said Malan after receiving his player of the match award.

‘Then Nabi bhai came and did exactly the same. Took a good option. We sort of dovetailed really well. Whenever I had a quiet over, he managed to hit a boundary, and we just got that scoreboard taken along.’

But it was the bowlers who got the biggest nod from Malan. 

 ‘It was not easy, the day games here; the pitch tends to get slower. Thankfully, we restricted them to 120 runs. I think if we were chasing 140-150 runs, then we had to go hard earlier, which poses some risks. So credit to our bowlers for restricting them to 120,’ said the Englishman.

Barishal captain Tamim Iqbal was also full of praise for his bowlers. 

‘First of all, I think the bowlers did extremely well. We were confused whether to bat first or bowl. Then we went bowling. Bowlers used the condition very well,’ said Tamim.