Cumilla Victorians beat Fortune Barishal by one run in a thrilling final to secure the title of the 8th edition of Bangladesh Premier League (BPL)-2022 at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, Mirpur in Dhaka on Friday (February 18).

This is the hat-trick BPL title triumph for the franchise. Earlier, Cumilla secured titles of third and sixth edition of the tournament.

In the final of eighth BPL edition in 2022 on Friday (February 18), Cumilla, thanks to Sunil Narine’s 57 runs, scored 151 runs by losing 9 wickets in 20 overs when the skipper won the toss and opted to bat first.

In reply, Barishal, thanks to brilliant innings of Shaikat Ali’s 58 runs, managed to score 150 runs by losing eight wickets in 20 overs.

For Cumilla, Sunil Narine hit a quick innings of 57 runs from 23 balls which includes five boundaries and as many over-boundaries.

Moeen Ali smashed 38 runs from 32 balls while Abu Hider Rony posted 19 runs off 27 balls.

Imrul Kayes scored 12 runs off 12 balls while wicket-keeper Liton Das, Mahmudul Hasan Joy and Faf du Plessis could not reach two digits. Liton and du Plessis scored four runs each while Mahmudul Joy bagged eight runs. Ariful Haque and Shohidul Islam hit a duck each.

For Barishal, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Shafiqul Islam bagged two wickets each. Dwayne Bravo, Shakib Al Hasan and Mehedi Hasan Rana shared a wicket each.

In Chase, Barishal’s Shykat Ali smashed 58 runs off 34 balls with 11 fours and a six.

Chris Gayle scored 33 runs from 31 runs while Nurul Hasan bagged 14 runs and Najmul Hossain Shanto scored 12 runs.

However, no other batsmen of Barishal could reach two digits.

Tanjid Tamim and Mehdi Hasan Miraj got capital to fight with great batting! Then the bowlers also showed the way, but the end was not saved in front of England's aggressive batting. Moeen Ali took England to the port of victory by playing an innings of 56 runs, in the end Bangladesh lost by 4 wickets!

Bangladesh did not start well after winning the toss and batting in Guwahati. The Tigers were under pressure after losing the wickets of two top order batsmen Liton Das and Nazmul Hossain Shanto within 26 runs of the team. However, the opener Tanjid Hasan Tamim was standing at the other end of the wicket with beautiful shots. But he got out at 78 runs. Then Mehdi Hasan Miraj took the lead of the team, but no one could accompany him.

Meanwhile, the match was interrupted by rain. As a result, the 50-over match was reduced to 37 overs. Until the rain stopped, Bangladesh's collection was 153 runs after losing 5 wickets at the end of 30 overs.

However, even after the rain, the Tiger batters could not add much runs. Miraj, the top scorer of the innings, could not do much. He was dismissed at 173 runs. As a result, Bangladesh's innings stopped at 188 runs after the scheduled 37 overs. According to the DLS method, England's target was 197 runs.

Batsman David Malan was dismissed by Mustafizur Rahman at the start of batting with a target of 197 runs. But right-handed batsman Jonny Bairstow continued to bat aggressively. He played an unbeaten innings of 34 runs off 21 balls. Mustafizur Rahman sent him back for 51 runs. Batter Harry Brooks (17) could not do much, he was bowled out by Hasan Mahmud at the team's 73 runs.

But soon after coming to the wicket, English captain Jos Buttler started playing one stroke after another in an aggressive manner. But Bangladesh returned to the match when two batsmen Butler (30) and Liam Livingstone (7) were out at 107 and 114 runs respectively.

However, after Moeen Ali's innings of 56 runs from 39 balls, the English left the field with a victory by 4 wickets. Pacer Mustafizur Rahman took maximum 2 wickets for Tigers.

The Bangladesh team is now in India to play in the World Cup. The team has already played a preparatory match. After that, the preparation match against England will be played tomorrow(Sunday). Before that, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gave a message to Shakib Al Hasan's team.

The Prime Minister gave the message in an interview during her US visit. In the interview given to Voice of America, she said, 'We always hope that we can show a good game in the World Cup. This is my word to them, let the honor of Bangladesh be maintained, they will pour all their ability in that way and play with sincerity. That's what I want. If you play well, you can get good results. I am always optimistic.

After that she said that she had contact with the team before the trip. She said, 'I always have contact with them. I talked to them before coming. Talk to the players too. Keep in touch with the organizers. I always take care. My aim is always to make our boys and girls do well in sports. And there are all kinds of cooperation.'

Bangladesh's World Cup mission begins with a match against Afghanistan on October 7. 

The turn of events of the last few days has only dragged Bangladesh cricket backwards. Just before the World Cup, something that is not good, who does not know! But it was important to push those negativity aside and focus back on cricket. Bangladesh got that chance in the warm-up match against Sri Lanka. Bangladesh took it very well. The Lankans lost by a huge margin of 7 wickets. The Bangladesh team without Shakib Al Hasan managed to regain the all-important confidence before the World Cup.

In the Asia Cup, they won two out of five matches. Then Bangladesh lost to New Zealand in the last home series. The graph of the team's performance was downwards. After that, just before and after the announcement of the team, there was a lot of trouble with the seniors; the attention was diverted from cricket! Add to that the injury of Captain Shakib Al Hasan the night before the match. Before the start of the match, it seemed that it was not possible for Bangladesh to be on the back foot.

Shakib is not there, along with deputy Nazmul Hossain Shanto; In the absence of both, Mehdi Hasan Miraj was made the captain. But the luck of the toss went with Sri Lanka. When Sri Lanka reached the three-figure mark without losing a wicket, the innings had not even completed 15 overs. After that, Bangladesh came back in a great way. Credit to the bowlers and fielders for that. Sheikh Mehdi Hasan started it. With his three wickets, Mehdi Hasan Miraj, Nasum Ahmed, Shariful Islam and Tanjim Shakib's bowling, Bangladesh held the Lankans down and got a target of 264 runs.

No more mistakes from there. Two openers Tanjid Tamim and Liton Das gave Bangladesh a strong base. The team's 131 runs in 20 overs made the match almost certain. However, even after the return of Liton who scored a personal 61 runs, the fear of losing the way could not be ruled out. Mehdi Hassan Miraj did not let that fear come true. He started with Tanjid in steady batting, then finished with Mushfiqur Rahim with a cool head.

Tanjid may regret. Solid got off to a great start, a century just before the World Cup could have boosted his confidence manifold. But what has happened is less? After a long 'drought', the whole team should be confident in this win. For now, this confidence is a bigger achievement than winning this match. 

Shakib Al Hasan is not sparing Tamim Iqbal at all. On Wednesday (September 27) in a conversation with a private TV channel, the Bangladesh captain made several explosive comments. At the beginning of the second part of the interview, Shakib appeared in a sullen manner. He directly targeted teammate Tamim.

Shakib blamed Tamim for the ODI series loss at home against Afghanistan last July. Feeling emotional after the loss in the first ODI of the series, Tamim's retirement pushed the team towards series defeat, Shakib said, 'Losing the series with Afghanistan is one person's mistake, the captain's mistake. After losing the first game we had two games in hand. Nowhere in the world have I seen a captain come after a match and get emotional and say that I will not play cricket anymore.'

Shakib did not hesitate to question Tamim's sense of responsibility at this time, 'I think if the captain (Tamim) had a sense of responsibility he would not have done it.'

According to Shakib, Tamim's decision left the team in a 'bad situation' midway through the series. Bangladesh lost the second match of that series to Afghanistan by 142 runs. In the last match, the representatives of red and green escaped the hands of white wash by snatching victory by 7 wickets.