Mushfiqur Rahim and Najmul Hossain Shanto struck a fifty each that powered the Sylhet Strikers to a challenging 175-7 in the grand finale of the ninth season of the Bangladesh Premier League against Comilla Victorians at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Thursday.

With Mushfiqur banging a 48-ball 74 and Shanto smashing a 45-ball 64 Sylhet managed a fighting total.

Sent to bat, Sylhet made a staggering start losing their top order duo Towhid Hridoy and Mashrafe Bin Mortaza for a duck and 1 by Tanvir Islam and Andre Russell that shortened them to 26-2 inside the third over.

Then Shanto shared a priceless 79 off 56 ball stand with Mushfiqur to curb the early loss and also to take the side beyond the hundred run mark in 12 overs before the former fell to Moeen Ali securing a fabulous landmark.

With the fifty Shanto reached 516 runs from 15 games at an average of 39.69 runs which is the highest in this edition of BPL and also the most runs in a season of the country’s lone T20 contention among the local players.

However, it was Mushfiqur who fought single handedly despite the exclusion of his set partner and continued until the last ball to propel Sylhet to an exciting total.