Mashrafe Mortaza achieves rare feat in Dhaka Premier League
Former Bangladesh skipper, Mashrafe Mortaza achieved a rare feat after he picked up four wickets in four deliveries which helped his side – Abahani Limited beat rivals Agrani Bank by 11 runs in the Dhaka Premier League. He is the eighth bowler to accomplish this feat. Shaun Pollock, Vasbert Drakes, Shrikant Mundhe, Lasith Malinga are soem of the other names to feature on this elusive list.
It all happened in the last over of the 50-over match where Agrani Bank required 13 runs off the final over with four wickets in hand. However, an inspired spell of bowling from the veteran saw Abahani defend the total successfully. Mortaza ended up with figures of 6/44 in 9.5 overs.
Earlier, Nazmul Hossain Shanto’s unbeaten 133 propelled Abahani posted a competitive total of 290/6. In reply, Agrani kept at par with required run-rate until the last over. After giving away one run in the first ball of the over, Mortaza went on to scalp the wickets of Dhiman Ghosh, Abdur Razzak, Shafiul Islam and Fazle Rabbi in the next four balls to help his side romp home with a ball remaining.
Reflecting on his performance, a satisfied Mortaza said, “My performance is helping me prepare for the rest of the year.”
“With the old ball, my strength is the cutter and it is with this delivery that I took the last four wickets. There’s always pressure on the bowler. I was bowling with the third-man up so an edge was going to go for four. I thought of pushing him back but then again, being positive is very important in these situations,” cricinfo quoted him saying.
