There has been an early upset, a hat-trick and two great chases in BPL's first week of the 2023-24 season. Another highlight has been all eight games ending in successful chases.
Comilla Victorians rounded it up with a thrilling four-wicket win against Fortune Barishal in Mirpur. The match finished only off the penultimate delivery, though Imrul Kayes had led the chase with 52 from 41 balls before Matthew Forde smashed Khaled Ahmed for a four and six in the final over.
Meanwhile, Khulna Tigers turned out to be the table-toppers due to a better net run rate over Chattogram Challengers, who have played a game more than Khulna. In their second match of the season, Khulna hunted down 188 in a convincing chase against Barishal.
They had eight wickets and two overs to spare when Shai Hope hit the winning boundary. Hope, who played a cameo of an unbeaten 25 from 10 balls, combined brilliantly with Evin Lewis and Anamul Haque in Khulna's big win. While Anamul got a composed 63 not out off 44 deliveries, Lewis thrashed 53 from only 22, with 50 of those runs coming in boundaries.
Durdanto Dhaka, this season's only new franchise, started by beating defending champions Comilla in the tournament opener. For Durdanto, Player of the Match Shoriful Islam took the first hat-trick of his T20 career, after which Mohammad Naim hit 52 off 40 balls.
On the second day of the season, Barishal's successful chase of 135 against Rangpur Riders had gone into the final over the match. That included a mini-battle of its own. Bangladesh seniors Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal faced off for the first time since Shakib called Tamim "childish" last September. But all the anticipation only resulted in a dud battle. Tamim managed just five runs from the first seven balls he faced from Shakib, who was dismissed for 2 earlier in the day.
But Rangpur hit back just days later when they reduced Sylhet Strikers to 39 for 5. Sylhet recovered through Benny Howell and Ben Cutting to post 120, and even avenged it with the ball by having Rangpur at 39 for 6. But Babar Azam, reportedly the most expensive signing in this season's BPL, got Rangpur home with a half-century, and an undefeated stand of 88 with Azmatullah Omarzai. That left Sylhet as the only winless side in the competition so far.
Batter of the week
While both Mushfiqur Rahim and Kayes got over a hundred runs in the first week, Anamul Haque's unbeaten 63 against Barishal stood out as the best innings from the first eight games. Anamul is often talked about as a lost talent, but he has consistently scored runs in the BPL and the domestic competitions. His half-century came right after Lewis had lit up the powerplay, even as he played a steady hand in the successful chase of 188, which was completed by Hope slamming three consecutive boundaries.
Bowler of the week
Nahidul Islam has often been a match-winner in the BPL. He took four wickets for Khulna against Chattogram, before bowling another tight spell against Barishal by conceding just 23 runs in four overs.
Against Chattogram, Nahidul took the first three wickets, including those of Avishka Fernando and Tanzid Hasan, and came back to pick his fourth when he removed Najibullah Zadran. Nahidul has remained economical, with his economy rate at just 4.38 after bowling eight overs across two matches.