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Mrittunjoy: Chattogram’s beacon in the dark
ABDULLAH AL MEHDI from Sylhet
There was joy and jubilation on one side, a clutter of youthful energy converging and coming through. At the other side of things, wearing a dreary look was the experienced Tamim Iqbal, stranded at the non-striker’s in the last delivery after what should have been a match-winning knock of 73. Tamim would have hoped that Mohammad Naim would do something special, only his partner could not find what was required. The one who got it right was 20-year-old Mrittunjoy Chowdhury, holding his nerve against the odds in a crucial death over against experienced batters.
Young guns Afif, Nasum Ahmed, Shoriful Islam converging towards Mrittunjoy signified a young side answering for themselves amidst the circus. Most of those names have done their bit in this ongoing BPL but things have remained clumsy for the franchise.
“We’re a young side. Our sense of joy in a win or disappointments in defeats is a bit more than others. We were very cheerful at the beginning [of BPL]. It was a matter of proving ourselves as youngsters. There was a lot of planning for today’s game and when it won, it was difficult to contain that joy,” Mrittunjoy told The Daily Star in an interview yesterday.
Tamim was set for glory, his side needing just nine runs in that last over. “Nine runs is too little to defend,” the pacer remarked.
There was a quiet confidence about him and he knew how to shift his plans. From picking up Mashrafe Bin Mortaza and Qais Ahmed’s wicket with slowers in previous spell, he went to his yorkers with five deliveries remaining.
“I planned according to the batters and then tried to execute. Panic doesn’t do you good. I would have tried slowers if Tamim bhai was new to the crease, but at that moment I felt he might get under it and yorkers were the better option. The change in pace was confusing them,” he said, landing one of his yorkers under Tamim.
“I went very wide of the crease, I wanted to land it right [a tad outside off stump] where his bat would come down from natural stance.
“I like the challenge of death over bowling. I feel less pressure than normal and competing with batters gives me confidence. I feel I have an idea of how batters think. When I have bad days, I feel I have enough experience of bad days struggling two years with injury.”
The lad has 10 wickets in five games now, including a hat-trick in one and a three-wicket over in another. A beacon for Chattogram in the dark.
“I wanted to do well this BPL for my family, my coaches, my support structure.”
Biggest facet of this win is that it keeps Chattogram’s hopes alive.
Meanwhile, in the night game that followed, Sylhet Sunrisers’ hopes of progressing to the next round faded completely despite a 49-ball 90 from Colin Ingram as they fell short by 12 runs against Fortune Barishal, who amassed 199 while batting first, the second-highest total of this BPL edition, riding on quick-fire knocks from opener Munim Shahriar (51 off 28), Shakib Al Hasan (38 off 19) and Dwayne Bravo (34 off 13) while Chris Gayle (51 off 45) anchored the innings from the top.

No captaincy,

please!
BISHWAJIT ROY
Who would not love to captain his side? It is something that a lot of players dream of. We often hear players say, “It’s a dream come true to captain the side.”
But we can’t expect any such usual practice when it comes to the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL).
The ongoing BPL probably made headlines mostly for captaincy changes, especially for teams to replace skippers just before the start of a match. And more interestingly, most players have refused to take the role. Let’s begin with the controversy surrounding Mehedi Hasan Miraz during the Chattogram leg of the competition.
The Miraz drama, which was initiated after the player was stripped of captaincy just hours before their game against Sylhet Sunrisers, eventually ended after reaching an understanding with the franchise, but the player made it clear that he would not captain the side if asked again.
Once again sudden captaincy changes took centre stage in the Sylhet leg of the tournament. After Sylhet Sunrisers surprised with a captaincy change on Monday, Chattogram Challengers yesterday had Afif Hossain replace Naeem Islam, who had in fact replaced Miraz as captain earlier.
When Chattogram had Miraz stripped off captaincy, they did not cite any issue regarding the player’s performance. However, in Naeem’s case, the team mentioned that the player had to be dropped due to his poor performance.
On Monday, after Sylhet replaced Mosaddek Hossain with Ravi Bopara as their captain, Sylhet team manager Kazi Al Mashuk Bari disclosed that players like Anamul Haque and Mohammad Mithun refused to take the responsibility.
It is, however, not sure if Chattogram had asked anyone else to replace Naeem before approaching Afif. But one thing is certain that the captaincy circus has reached such a stage that no one can be sure as to who will be coming in to flip the coin in BPL anymore.