Khulna manage to post competitive total after early mess

Gemcon Khulna after losing early wickets, fought back through Ariful Haque's heroics and posted a somewhat decent total of 146 runs on the board for the loss of 6 wickets. It was Ariful once again who rescued them from the mess and guided the team to a defendable total in the end. 

Ariful remained not out on 41 off 31 deliveries with two-4s and three-6s, accompanied well by youngsters Shamim Hossain and Shahidul Islam. Khulna at one stage were 5 down for only 51 runs. Ariful and Shamim put on a 49-run partnership for the 6th wicket before Shamim went back to the pavilion scoring 35 off 25 balls. Ariful was then joined by Shahidul Islam in the middle and built an unbeaten 46-run partnership in the last 4 overs where the majority of the runs were scored by Ariful.

Earlier, Minister Group Rajshahi dominated the Khulna and proved Mahmudullah Riyad's decision wrong by picking up early wickets. All-rounder Mahedi Hasan was again in mood today. He began the fest by picking up Imrul Kayes who has now scored two back to back ducks in the Bangabandhu T20 Cup. Mahedi later sent back Anamul Haque Bijoy with a magnificent run-out.

Shakib Al Hasan managed to score only 12 runs off 9 balls before getting out in the same fashion as Tuesday. 

Mukidul Islam picked up two wickets including the big fish Shakib, but he was a tad expensive giving away 44 runs from his 4 overs. Ebadat Hossain, Arafat Sunny and Mahedi Hasan picked up a wicket each. 

Rajshahi will need 147 runs to continue their winning run when they come on to bat.

Both the teams won in their opening match of the tournament on Tuesday.