Dhaka Gladiators makes it into the BPL finals

Mashrafe Mortaza’s Dhaka Gladiators have entered the finals of the first edition of BPL after beating Shakib-Al-Hasan’s Khulna Royal Bengals by 9 runs. Gladiators won the toss and chose to bat first in the second semi-final. Dhaka had the added services
of Shahid Afridi, Saeed Ajmal and Awais Zia up their sleeves while Rana Naveed-ul-Hasan was dropped from the playing XI.

Khulna had Mohammad Hafeez and Hammad Azam added to their ranks at the expense of Sanath Jayasuria and Nial O’Briren.

Imran Nazir and Awais Zia opened the innings for Dhaka and added 21 for the first wicket before Zia looped a catch to Nazmul Hossain for 5. Nazimuddin got himself run out for 1 with Dhaka reeling at 22-2. Birthday Boy, Azhar Mahmood, added 41 for the third
wicket with Nazir before Nazir was caught by Herschelle Gibbs off Hafeez. He made 41. Mahmood and Muhammad Ashraful added 72 for the fourth wicket before MAhmood was caught by Gibbs for 65 off Azam.

Afridi and Ashraful took the score up to 191/4 with Boom Boom finishing not out for 27 off 11 balls and Ashraful with 47 off 33. Hafeez, Azam and Shakib picked up a wicket each.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Gibbs started the innings for Khulna but lost Gibbs with the score at 5. Hafeez and Chanderpaul added 48 for the second wicket before the Paki was run out for 24. Dwayne Smith committed suicide and looped a catch at long-on before
Chanderpaul followed his West Indian partner for 25.

With Khuklna reduced to 55-4, it seemed a walk-in-the-park for the Gladiators but Nasir Hossain and Shakib kept up with the rate. Nasir made 35 before scooping a catch at long-on towards Ashraful. Shakib stayed there till the very end and managed 86 not
out from 41 balls but failed to take his team over the line. Khulna eventually finished with 182/7 in their allotted 20 overs.

Elias Sunny picked up three wickets while Afridi, Ajmal and Mortaza picked up a wicket each. Azhar Mahmood was declared Man of the Match. Gladiators will take on the Barisal Burners in the final on Wednesday, February 29, in Dhaka.

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Posted by Taha Habib on Feb 29 2012. Filed under Pakistan, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry