Dhaka Gladiators crowned BPL champions

Mashrafe Mortaza’s Dhaka Gladiators defeated Brad Hodge’s Barisal Burners to lift the first BPL trophy. The event was lit with the inclusion of Shahid Afridi and Saeed Ajmal in the Dhaka side who came into the semi-finals without the services of the duo.

Gladiators won the toss and chose to field first. Ahmed Shehzad was the first man to go for 28 of 20 balls. He was caught be Ajmal of the bowling of Afridi. Phil Mustard lasted for just five runs before being trapped in front of the wickets by Ajmal. Mithun
Ali was caught at the square leg boundary by Imran Nazir of Afridi. Mominul Haque made 11 before perishing to Rana Naved-ul-Hasan. Farhad Hossain also compiled 11 runs before falling once again to Afridi. Yasir Arafat made 5 and Kabir Ali 6 as Burners compiled
140 runs in their allotted 20 overs. Skipper, Hodge, remained not out with 70.

Afridi picked up three wickets while Naved-ul-Hasan picked up two. Ajmal was the other wicket taker.

Gladiators went all out with their response but lost Nazimuddin for 13 before Nazir and Anamul Haque added 110 runs for the second wicket. Nazir’s blistering innings of 75 came to a rough end when he chipped a catch to Ahmed Shehzad at mid-on not before
entertaining the 25,000 people at the Shere Bangla National Stadium, Dhaka.

Azhar Mahmood faced just one ball before Haque struck a boundary to finish things off inside the 16 overs. Alauddin Babu and Suhrawadi Shuvo picked up a wicket each. Imran Nazir was declared Man of the Match while Shakib Al Hasan was given the Man of the
Series award. Elias Sunny was adjudged the most valuable local player while Mahmood became the most valuable foreign player.

Gladiators earned the prize money worth 5 crore while the runners-up bagged 2 crores. The next edition of BPL will be played next year in February.

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Posted by Taha Habib on Mar 1 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