Mushfiqur, Fletcher and Thisara down Chattogram Challengers in first home BPL fixture

Khulna Tigers notched up their second win in three games, beating Chattogram Challengers by six wickets in their first home match at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium. Andre Fletcher played an important hand in the win with a 47-ball 58, his fifth BPL half-century, providing Khulna with a launchpad for a late onslaught.

Mushfiqur Rahim and Seekkuge Prasanna blitzed 45 runs in 4.4 overs to complete the win with seven balls to spare. Prasanna struck two sixes and a four in his 15-ball 23. He got out with the scores level when he holed out to sweeper cover off Mehidy Hasan Miraz. Mushfiqur hit the winning runs and finished unbeaten on 44 off 30 balls with a six and four fours.

Fletcher gave Khulna the perfect start despite them losing Soumya Sarkar and Rony Talukdar early. He scored most of his runs on the leg-side, but struck four sweetly-timed fours with square and late cuts. He held the Khulna innings together till the 15th over when, after hitting his second six of the day, he top-edged Miraz to long-on. Mushfiqur and Prasanna had the perfect base to wrap up the chase quickly.

Chattogram had earlier slumped to 102 for 7 in the 16th over when Thisara Perera had Shamim Hossain caught at deep midwicket to take his third wicket. This was a slip from the relative comfort of 84 for 3 in the 13th over. Perera earlier removed Will Jacks, who made 28 off 23 balls, as well as the dangerous Benny Howell, who lobbed Perera a return catch.

Afif top-scored for Khulna with 44 off 37 balls, but he couldn't convert his start into something more significant. Towards the end, the veteran Naeem Islam struck a six and two fours in his unbeaten 19-ball 25. Apart from Perera's three-for, there was one wicket each for all the other five bowlers Khulna deployed.

After two middling innings in his three previous knocks, Chattogram's Sabbir Rahman only made four in this game. Howell too missed out with the bat and ball for the first time in the tournament, after making a big impact in Chattogram's first three matches.