Until Monday, Mohammad Amir has not had a five-wicket haul in T20 cricket. But all that changed in the qualifier of BPL 2019-20 as Amir returned with figures of 6 for 17 to take his team Khulna Tigers into the qualifiers.
After Rajshahi Royals opted to bowl, Khulna could score only 158 for 3. It was not enough against the Rajshahi Royals batting order that includes players like Shoaib Malik and Andre Russell. Rajshahi unusually asked Liton Das and Afif Hossain to open the innings.
Amir steals the limelight:
Amir, however, got the vital scalps of top five Rajshahi batsmen. He accounted for Lito and Rusell too, among others, in his first spell with figures of 4 for 12 off three overs. Liton missed a ball that had made its way between his bat and pad to hit the highest point of off stump, Afif went after a wide ball only to edge it. Russell had to contend with a short ball that targeted his throat by swinging it. Amir also accounted for Alok Kapali who edged one to slips where Shamshur Rahman grabbed it.
“At the point when you are bowling under lights, you need to search for swing,” Amir said after his game dominating exhibition. “I think I was hitting the correct zones. I realized their openers were in acceptable touch, so I thought if I could get them two, we would have a decent possibility. It worked out. I think there was something for the bowlers on the off chance that you hit the correct territories,” he added.
“The wicket was giving you something. I wasn’t attempting excessively, however simply attempting to hit the correct regions,” Amir stated.
Malik put up a fight to help his side with fifty off 39 balls. Malik put on a 74-run partnership with Taijul Islam. When Rajshahi was six down, they needed 53 off three overs when Amir came into bowl his final over. In his last over, he dismissed both Islam and Malik within four balls.
Amir talks about their game style:
“The arrangement was working for us. I had just bowled three overs,” Amir said. “Soft [Mushfiqur] required me in the seventeenth or eighteenth over. It was the arrangement. Shoaib Malik is a hazardous player, who has a ton of experience. I continued advising Mushy to dispose of Shoaib Bhai, he is so risky.”
Amir will play his first BPL final on Friday after he passed up a great opportunity in 2017 last when Dhaka Dynamites dropped him against Rangpur Riders.
