Silchar’s Barak Bulletin Strikers to take on Hailakandi’s Gladiators on BPL’s day-night final

Building a good team is not just about pen and paper efficiency. Performing on the field is the real thing. This is called cricket which Barak Bulletin Strikers exactly did. The team was hardly discussed in BPL season six. Hot favorites for the tournament, Novotious XI Silchar were at the center of discussion on all sides as their team had star players like Vivek Singh, Virat Singh, Pritam Das, Sarupam Purkayastha, Kaushik Giri and Abhishek Thakuri among others.

Naturally, Novotious played with the tag of hot favorites in the first semi-final of BPL. But Barak Bulletin Strikers fought back with a brilliant all-round cricket. They booked their ticket to the finals of BPL season six with a stunning four-wickets victory against the favourites.

The Strikers will take on Hailakandi Crac Gladiators in the final clash on Sunday under floodlights. In the second semi-final of BPL, the Hailakandi team defeated Ashrin Blossom Katigorah by 27 runs.

On Saturday morning at SM Dev Stadium, Barak Bulletin Strikers won the toss and decided to field first. Novotious scored 130 runs for 6 wickets after being invited to bat. In fact, the Strikers’ bowlers bowled in a great rhythm from the beginning of the match. Captain Samik Das did not get any wicket with the new ball but also did not allow the run rate to increase. Left handed batsman Vivek Singh scored a half century for Novotious. He made 56 runs. Besides, Ehsan Jamal scored 32 runs. IPL star Virat Singh (1) failed to allure spectators.

Barak Bulletin Strikers did great bowling and fielding from the start. Leaving aside the last four overs, Novotious’ run rate could not rise above six. Strikers’ bowlers bowled with great variation. Subham Sarkar, the man of the match of the quarter final shone bright once again in the semi, as he took three wickets (3-23).

Chasing 130 for a berth in the final, Barak Bulletin Strikers did not get off to a good start. Aman Singh (10) and Shamik Das (4) went back to the pavilion early. After that, two left handed batsmen Subham Dey and Parvez Aziz took the lead of the team. Strikers came back to the fight due to the partnership between these two. At one time, it seemed that this pair would leave the field with victory for the team but Parvez Aziz (35) went back to the dressing room after attempting a big shot. Shubham Dey (45) also returned to the pavilion after some time.

Novotious returned back to the match with the fall of these two wickets. Subham Sarkar and Rajkumar Paul failed to perform under pressure. At one point, Strikers needed 27 runs from the last three overs. Bengal’s star Arnab Nandi turned the match in favour of Strikers with a cool head at such a crucial juncture. He played a great innings of 23 runs off 9 balls. Sandipan Das gave good company to Nandi. Despite bowling well, left handed spinner Abhinav Choudhury could not bring victory to Novotious. He took 5 wickets (5-20).

In the second semi-final of the day, Hailakandi Crac Gladiators batted first and scored 151 runs for 8 wickets. The Katigorah team could have stopped their opponent early but it was not possible due to poor fielding. Tripura’s star Udiyan Bose (44 runs off 27 balls) batted brilliantly for the second consecutive match. Rajat Dey scored 29 runs. In reply, Ashrin Blossom got stuck at 124 runs for 9 wickets. Soumyadeep Das scored the highest 36 runs for his team. Besides, Bijoy Deb scored 27 runs. Sunil Lachit took four wickets (4-17).