Desk Report:
Despite being out of international cricket for a year, Shakib Al Hasan is not far from competitive cricket. He is playing in the PSL, Caribbean Premier League (CPL) as well as the T-10 tournament. The star all-rounder of Bangladesh is also seen in the United States Minor League Cricket (MILC).
Shakib is playing for Atlanta Fire in MILC. Yesterday, Atlanta Fire played against New Jersey Somerset Cavaliers in the Super Eight of the tournament. Although this match was bittersweet for Shakib, he left the field as a winner in the end. Atlanta Fire won this match by 76 runs at Church St Park.
Chasing the target of 154 runs, New Jersey kept losing wickets at regular intervals. The runs also started increasing slowly. At one stage, the team’s score was 18 for 2 in 4.4 overs. New Jersey’s two openers Kennar Lewis (7) and Chanderpaul Hemraj (4) were out in single figures. Ali Imran and Gajanand Singh put on a 16-run partnership for the third wicket, but they played 17 balls. Ansh Patel broke the partnership by dismissing Imran (13) on the third ball of the eighth over.
New Jersey’s innings collapsed like a house of cards after Imran was dismissed. The team lost 7 wickets for 43 runs and became 77 for 9 in 17.2 overs. Najaf Shah did not come out to bat and New Jersey’s innings ended at 77 runs. Ansh Patel and Sunny Patel took three wickets each. Both bowled four overs. Ansh spent 20 runs. Sunny gave away 16 runs. Shakib took 1 wicket for 9 runs in 3.2 overs. Bangladesh’s star all-rounder also gave away one over maiden.
New Jersey won the toss and chose to bowl against Atlanta Fire last night in the Super Eights. Batting first, Atlanta scored 153 runs for 8 wickets in the allotted 20 overs. Rishi Pandey scored the highest score of 58 runs in the innings. He hit five fours in his 48-ball innings. However, Shakib’s batting was poor despite his good bowling. He scored 6 runs in 9 balls. He could not hit any fours or sixes. Abdullah Gazi of New Jersey took 3 wickets for 32 runs in 3 overs.
