Desk news: Bangladesh Premier League frontrunners Sylhet Strikers arrived for the Sylhet leg on the back of several consistent performances and got the warmest of welcomes to the city from their fans but on the first day of the Sylhet phase, the home side faltered as they put up an underwhelming batting display on a fresh wicket at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium that saw them suffer a six-wicket loss to Rangpur Riders on Friday.

Amongst many others particularly in the top order, the focus was also on the veteran middle-order batter Mushfiqur Rahim who is yet to come to the party at the ongoing BPL.
Mushfiq, on Friday, fell to his Achilles hill when Rangpur pacer Azmatullah Omarzai jagged one back off the surface and found the bat-pad gap to hit timber. The 35-year-old for a second straight time went back to the hut for naught and this time on the very first ball.

In the eight matches that he has played so far, Mushfiq has managed 106 runs at an average of 21.20 and an underwhelming strike rate of 116.48. And with Sylhet’s top-order, who successfully did the job for the side in the first few matches, misfiring, the focus has very naturally shifted to the fairly untested middle-order where a batter of Mushfiq’s pedigree is expected to deliver. The experienced batter hasn’t been able to cross the 30-run mark in the eight innings he has batted and has to boast a best score of 28 so far in the tournament.