All eight matches during the second week of the BPL's ongoing 2023-24 season were held in Sylhet, arguably the country's best batting track. Khulna Tigers remained undefeated - they now have four victories from as many games - even as Sylhet Strikers failed to get on the board in five attempts. Here are some of the highlights from the week gone by.
While table-toppers Khulna followed up two wins from the last week with two more in this one, Chattogram Challengers were in good form too, having now won three matches in a row to sit just below Khulna. Rangpur Riders also bounced back from a defeat at the start of the week with two important wins.
Led by Anamul Haque - and with a heavy West Indies contingent - Khulna beat Rangpur by 28 runs before thumping Durdanto Dhaka by ten wickets in a 131-run chase, which they completed with more than five overs to spare. Allrounder Mohammad Nawaz starred for Khulna in both games. While he smashed 55 off 34 balls and took two wickets against Rangpur, he took 3 for 15 against Dhaka. Apart from Nawaz, Khulna have also been boosted by the consistency of Anamul and Evin Lewis.
Chattogram, meanwhile, also won both games this week. While they just inched past Fortune Barishal by ten runs while defending 193, they dominated Sylhet by chasing down 138 with eight wickets and 14 balls in the bank. Finalists last season, that was Sylhet's fifth loss in a row. Either side of losing to Chattogram, they also suffered heavy defeats to Comilla Victorians and Barishal.
The injured Mashrafe Mortaza might have been part of the reason for Sylhet's poor run, as he played for and captained the side despite not bowling regularly. Mashrafe has since decided to take a break from the tournament to focus on his political work. He had earlier admitted that it was "not ideal" that he was still in the side.
The change of venue from Mirpur in the first week to Sylhet in the second might have been a factor in there being a majority of wins for sides batting first - all eight games in Mirpur were won by the chasing side - as dew apparently became less of an issue at the picturesque Sylhet International Cricket Stadium.
Meanwhile, there was a nagging off-field debate surrounding Barishal's Pakistan allrounder Shoaib Malik. In the previous week, Barishal owner Mizanur Rahman wasn't pleased with Malik bowling as many as three no-balls in an over against Khulna, claiming "that's where we lost that match", as Khulna chased down 188 rather comfortably.
Soon after, on January 26, Mailk abruptly left the BPL after playing only three games, although as per Mizanur, Malik's contract ran "till February 14". That led to rumours about a rift within the team, though Malik later said that it was not the case.
Batter of the week
Rangpur's Babar Azam struck his second fifty of this season's BPL when he made 62 off 46 balls in a match-winning effort against Dhaka. He followed it up with a better-than-a-run-a-ball 37 against Comilla, again Rangpur's highest score in their eight-run win.
While Babar doesn't entirely dominate bowling attacks with a flurry of boundaries, he remains steady while building crucial partnerships. For instance, against Dhaka he added 50 with Nurul Hasan after Rangpur had lost two wickets in the powerplay, before having a union of 55 for the second wicket with Fazle Mahmud against Comilla.
Bowler of the week
Someone in the top six of the all-time ODI bowling averages with a minimum of 50 wickets slipped into the BPL without notice. Bilal Khan hails from Oman - he is one of their stars. And the left-arm quick has been effective for Chattogram too, picking up eight wickets at 18.25 to currently top the bowling charts in the BPL. That included a haul of 3 of 24 against Sylhet, for which he was given the Player-of-the-Match award.