Where Will Sylhet Strikers Stop Losing? Suffer Third Consecutive Defeat Against Fortune Barishal

Sylhet Strikers are struggling to find their footing in this year's BPL as they suffered yet another defeat, this time at the hands of Fortune Barishal. Chasing a modest target of 126 runs, Barishal comfortably achieved the target with 57 balls to spare, winning by 7 wickets. This marked Fortune Barishal's third win in four matches.

The home crowd in Sylhet witnessed yet another disappointing performance as Sylhet Strikers failed to register a victory. The team has lost all three of their opening matches in the tournament, including back-to-back losses against Rangpur and now this defeat to Fortune Barishal.

In an attempt to break their losing streak, Sylhet Strikers included Rahkeem Cornwall in their playing XI, but the West Indian was dismissed early, scoring just 18 runs off 12 balls. Prior to that, Ronny Talukdar was dismissed for a duck. The next batsman, Zakir Hasan, managed 25 runs, and George Munsey played a quick cameo, contributing 28 runs off 13 balls, offering some hope.

However, Aaron Jones failed to score, and Zakir Ali Anik only managed 1 run from 4 balls. With the team struggling at 89 for 8, there were fears of an early collapse before reaching 100 runs. But team captain Ariful Haque played a vital knock, scoring 36 runs off 29 balls, leading the team to a total of 125 runs.

In response, Fortune Barishal faced an early setback. The previous night's match hero, Tamim Iqbal, who scored an unbeaten 86 runs, was dismissed for a golden duck in the very first ball of the innings, caught behind by the wicketkeeper off Rahkeem Cornwall. The next ball, Tanzim Hasan Sakib dismissed Najmul Hossain Shanto for just 4 runs, leaving Barishal at 6 for 2.

However, after this early trouble, Kyle Mayers and Tawheed Hridoy formed a strong partnership, adding 116 runs between them. Hridoy, who was dismissed for 48 runs, fell just short of a fifty, but his contribution was crucial in leading Barishal to victory.

Barishal needed just 4 more runs for the win when Hridoy was dismissed, but they comfortably completed the chase with 9.3 overs remaining, winning the match by 7 wickets.