Najmul Hossain Shanto hit an unbeaten fifty as the Sylhet Strikers sealed their sixth victory in the Bangladesh Premier League after they defeated the Fortune Barishal by two runs at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Tuesday.

With Shanto smacking a 66-ball 89 and Tom Moores adding a 30-ball 40, Sylhet amassed 173-5 in the stipulated overs.

Pursuing a challenging 174, Barishal were limited to 171-8 following a tight bowling performance from Mohammad Amir in the penultimate over.

Rejaur Rahman Raja was the pick among the Sylhet bowlers, and Amir and Tanzim Hasan Shakib claimed two wickets each.

Ibrahim Zadran of Barishal scored a brilliant 42 off 37 balls, while Siaf Hasan finished with a storming 19-ball 31.

Sent to bat, Sylhet suffered a terrific blow as Barishal’s Pakistani pacer Mohammad Wasim removed their top order trio for 15 runs inside the second over.

However, the table toppers curbed their early disasters to fight back in the game following a precious 71-ball 71 run stand between Shanto and Tom Moores in the fourth wicket that aided the side go close to the hundred threshold before the latter fell to Shakib Al Hasan in 13.5 overs.

Shanto batted alone despite losing his set partner and went big in the death overs, adding a whirlwind 68 off 34 balls with Thisara Perera before the latter was dismissed for a flurry of 16-ball 21, leaving the side at 164.

However, Shanto stood on until the final delivery of the innings to propel Sylhet to an exciting total.

This was his second BPL fifty of this edition, as his initial 57 off 39 balls came against Dhaka Dominators in the early phase of Dhaka.   

The 24-year-old hit 11 fours and a maximum on his way to a 66-ball 88 victory.

Mohammad Wasim claimed 3-34.

In reply, although Barishal made a decent start as their opening stand Saif Hasan and Ibrahim Zadran went unscratched until 42 in 4.5 overs, the pair couldn’t carry on the momentum after the former gave a catch behind the stumps by Tanzim Hasan Sakib  in 4.5 overs.

Anamul Haque Bojoy, the wicketkeeper batsman, followed in the footsteps of Saif after just two overs to reduce Barishal to 46-2.

Then skipper Shakib and Zadran shared a 39-ball 69 to rebound the side, but their efforts were in vain after Raja rattled the former’s stumps on 29 off 18 balls, followed by the latter on a 12-ball 21 by Amir,

However, Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Iftikhar Ahmed added a 25-ball 18 to reach the target, but a low-priced 9 run from Amir in the 17th and 19th overs hampered their progress.

With 15 runs needed in the final over, Iftikhar lost his way in the very first delivery by Raja on a 13-ball 17.

Then Miraz was run out in the next ball that eventually paved the way for Sylhet.