Shakib, Taskin and Co have mixed day in T20 leagues

Bangladesh's cricketers had a mixed outing in their respective matches on Saturday in separate franchise-based T20 tournaments, currently taking place in the USA and Sri Lanka.

Ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, who is Bangladesh's sole representative in Major League Cricket (MLC) 2024, scored a 13-ball 18 and claimed one wicket leaking 32 runs in three overs for Los Angeles Knight Riders during his side's opening match against Texas Super Kings at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas.

The southpaw, who came to bat at number four after the dismissal of Sunil Narine in the third over, smashed a boundary in his first ball before hitting two more fours during his short stay at the crease.

Faf du Plessis took a regulatory catch at mid-off to send Shakib to the pavilion in the seventh over bowled by Aaron Hardie.

However, former Indian Under-19 winning captain Unmukt Chand smashed 68 off 43 balls to guide the Knight Riders to 162-7 in their 20 overs after being sent to bat first.

In bowling, Shakib conceded 10 runs in his first over after coming to bowl in the seventh over while Hardie smashed him for a six in the second ball of his next over.

Shakib had the last laugh against Hardie as he got the batter caught behind.

However, Super Kings batsman Davon Conway didn't take time to put the pressure back on Shakib by smashing him for a six and a four in successive deliveries in the left-arm spinner's third over.

Shakib wasn't brought in to bowl further in the game but his side went on to win the contest by 12 runs to begin the tournament on a winning note.

Elsewhere, pacer Taskin Ahmed had a decent Lanka Premier League (LPL) debut as he finished with 1-30 in his allotted overs and scored a three-ball seven for his side Colombo Strikers, who clinched a nail-biting two-run win over Shoriful Islam's Kandy Falcons in Dambulla to move to the top of the points  table.

Taskin, who came to bat at the 18th over after his national teammate Shoriful Islam took his second wicket by removing Chamika Karunaratne, struck pacer Dushmantha Chameera for a well-hit six only in the second ball but the bowler took his revenge in the next ball by dismissing the Bangladeshi pacer.

Shoriful had earlier dismissed Colombo opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz (20) to give his side the first breakthrough in the contest. However, the left-arm pacer was expensive overall on the day as he finished with 2-43 in his four overs.

Like Shoriful, Taskin also gave Colombo early success defending a total of 199 runs as the right-arm pacer bowled Dinesh Chandimal in his second over of the match.

Taskin, who only conceded 19 runs in his first three overs, leaked 11 runs in his last over but his side went on the defend their total in the last over thriller.

Meanwhile, pacer Mustafizur Rahman finished with 2-39 in his four overs during his side Dambulla Sixers' third match of the tournament against Jaffna Kings at the same venue in the day's other match.

Mustafizur started well in the match as he dismissed Kusal Mendis in his first over after getting hit for a boundary but he was expensive in his last two overs where he conceded 12 runs each.

Jaffna finished with 218-5 in their 20 overs riding on two blazing innings from Pathum Nissanka (88 off 53 balls) and Avishka Fernando (57 off 30 balls) after being sent into bat first.

Dambulla's other Bangladeshi recruit Towhid Hridoy was benched for the game.