Aliss Islam takes hat-trick on BPL debut

His feat came for Dhaka Dynamites against Rangpur Riders on Friday, 11 January, and he finished with figures of 4/26.

Islam dropped three catches, but made up for those by taking the wickets of Mohammad Mithun (49), Masrafe Mortaza (0) and Farhad Reza (0) in the 18th over of the game, playing a crucial role in Dhaka's two-run win in Mirpur. While Mithun was bowled, the ball to Mortaza just clipped the bails and Reza was caught at slip.

Islam, who is yet to be capped in first-class and List A cricket, was reportedly spotted by a Dhaka scout when playing first-division cricket. "I was a net bowler for Dhaka Dynamites," he said. "While practising bowling in the nets, Shujon Sir [coach Khaled Mahmud] after watching me said that he believed that I could play well in the BPL and later took me to his team.

"Last evening, I got to know that I will be playing. Sir [Mahmud] called me up and suggested that I prepare myself physically and mentally. And I was prepared already.

"It's a matter of nervousness playing in this big stadium; in this big tournament. At the outset I was outright nervous, then eventually I got rid of it."

The right-arm off-break bowler broke the 121-run stand between Rilee Rossouw (83) and Mithun, thereby bringing Dhaka back in the match. His hat-trick then helped restrict Rangapur to 181/9 in response to Dhaka's 183/9.

"It was my first match in a stadium. I was literally too nervous. But after dropping the catches, the teammates supported me to a great extent and so did the coach," Islam added. "Shakib bhai (Shakib Al Hasan, Dhaka captain) just said that it was going all good, just keep landing the ball at the right place."

Mohammad Sami (2012) and Al Amin Hossain (2015) are the other players to pick up hat-tricks in the BPL.