DHAKA – Bangladesh T20 skipper Mahmudullah Riyad achieved a domestic double after leading his side Gemcon Khulna to clinch the Bangabandhu T20 Cup trophy.
Khulna beat Gazi Group Chattogram by 5 runs in a thrilling final and Mahmudullah led the side from the front with a tremendous 48 ball-70 not out.
His knock helped the side recover from a shaky start to rack up a competitive 1557-7, which proved to be enough at the end.
Earlier, the all-rounder, led Mahmudullah XI to the title of the BCB President’s Cup, a three-team fifty-over tournament, in October.
Thereby he grabbed both of the one-day and T20 format trophy and proved his captaincy credential.Both the tournaments were part of Bangladesh Cricket Board’s (BCB) plan of bringing cricket back in the country after the lengthy Covid-19 induced break.
Mahmudullah earlier was overlooked for the Tigers’ one-day international captaincy position earlier this year. After Mashrafe Bin Mortaza stepped down from the ODI captaincy post in March, Mahmudullah was one of the candidates to take over the role. He in fact was expected to be ODI captain as he was already captaining Bangladesh in T20s.
But the BCB opted for Tamim Iqbal, whose team failed to play the final of the BCB President’s Cup and got knocked out in the eliminator in the Bangabandhu Twenty20 Cup.
Mahmudullah has previously led his side to the final of Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) twice, Chittagong Kings in 2013 and Barisal Bulls in 2015, but on both occasions his side ended up as runners-up.BSS
