Mustafizur’s form, a plus point for us: Arafat Sunny
Image : Collected
|| CF Correspondent ||
With Mustafizur Rahman coming back to form with a bang, Rangpur Rangers saw hope against the hopes to seal the play-off berth.
Adorably called as The Fizz, Mustafizur came up with an incredible 4-0-10-3 to contribute in crushing Sylhet Thunder by seven wickets in a match, which was vital for Rangpur’s quest to stay alive in the Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League (BBPL).
After this victory, Rangpur’s point is four in seven matches and if they could win the rest of the five matches in a row, they may well seal the play-off berth, beating the tough equation.
That Rangpur found them in a state of embarrassment in the early part of the tournament was vastly down to the form of Mustafizur Rahman who was erratic with both new and old ball.
But he gave an indication to return to form during the Chattogram part of BBPL and in Dhaka part, he flourished with full glory.
“He was always a good bowler but he has been going through rough phase of his career. Now he comes back, which is good news for us,” Mustafizur’s teammate Arafat Sunny told the reporters after Rangpur’s seven-wicket win over Sylhet.
“He has been bowling well from the Chattogram part and in the last two matches here he was excellent. Usually he bowls the way, he bowls today. So he came back again and is in now good form. That’s a plus point for us,” Sunny added.
Before the victory, when Rangpur was in a circle of defeats, rumours were rife that they have internal problems in their team. The rumours sparked further when Rangpur changed captains thrice in six matches with Mohammad Nabi leading the side for first four matches before Tom Abell appointed as captain. After leading the side for one match, Abell was dropped from the team and Shane Watson took over the captaincy.
Sunny refused to make comment on those issues but believes that the victory against Sylhet gives them the momentum which they should keep up to stay alive in the tournament.
“When a team goes through a rough phase, they look disarray. When the winning moment comes, everything looks okay. We needed a victory and we got that now,” Sunny remarked.
“Now we want to build on that. We want to carry the momentum to the next matches. If we can, it will be good for us.”
In pursuit of Sylhet’s 133-9, Rangpur fell in a problem when captain Shane Watson was dismissed for 1 to leave the side 5-1. Sunny said that they didn’t have any concern for the victory as they know that their batsmen were capable of gunning down that target.
“We didn’t have negative feeling. Just what we needed was a big partnership. Naim and Delport gave us that partnership and so we won it with ease,” he concluded.
