Shoriful dancing to Sattear’s tune

After a week of boardroom bickering and a dramatic players' strike that threatened to derail the Bashundhara Cement Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), cricket finally returned to the Sher-e-Bangla turf on Friday. But as the politics receded, it was Chattogram Royals’ left-arm speedster Shoriful Islam who stole the spotlight. 

Claiming a sensational 5-9 against Noakhali Express, the tournament’s leading wicket-taker (18 scalps) appeared to be on cloud nine. 

Yet, behind the searing yorkers and spontaneous dancing, a more cerebral engine was running. Shoriful has begun marching to a new beat, employing personal analyst Sabbib Bin Sattear Rahul to script his success. 

This isn't just raw pace anymore; it is a tactical masterclass designed to ensure the "Young Tiger" outsmarts the opposition before he even bowls a ball.

The evidence was clear in the way Shoriful dismantled the Noakhali Express order. Despite being hit for a four in his first delivery, he kept his calm, ending up with his maiden five-for in T20s. 

The way he set up Hassan Eisakhil, in particular, suggested he is doing his homework well. 

Shoriful bowled five deliveries in the range of 130 to 135 kmph before removing him with a slower ball clocked at less than 124 kmph. It was a perfect set-up, following a pattern he has used throughout the tournament: staying happy with back-of-length deliveries and mixing them with slower balls, fuller lengths, and yorkers.

“When a batsman shuffles inside the crease, it is easier to set him up, as was the case with Eisakhil,” Shoriful told reporters following the game. 

“I noticed I was setting him up bowling back of a length and I thought a slower one might create a chance when he moved early and the ball landed in the right area in front, so that’s how it worked.”

He added that he is regularly working with Sattear on his bowling plans. “After every match, he sends me everything. Where I make mistakes, I review those before the next match so I don’t repeat them.”

The man behind the data, Sattear, is a law student at BRAC University with a knack for working on sports-related data and analysis. He told the Daily Sun that they work with every detail ahead of a match.

“We are working on every detail,” said Sattear. 

“For example, for a particular match, we even decide the field setup like: ‘This is the field for this batsman.’”

Sattear's analysis identified a crucial flaw in Shoriful’s early-season rhythm. 

“From the beginning, what we noticed was that in Shoriful’s opening overs, there was a slight difference in line and length—just a bit, like 19–20. What he was doing was getting pretty much fuller than necessary. In the powerplay, one of the most important scoring shots for a batsman is the drive. So in T20s, if we can take the drive away from a batsman by bowling slightly shorter, around a good length or short of a good length, it takes away the drive. Then the batsman is forced to play square of the wicket, and the chances of getting a wicket increase.”

The duo also worked on fixing a drift towards the pads during the middle and death overs. 

“We brought that back a bit and started attacking middle and middle-off. As a result, the balls that used to go for runs are now either getting wickets or producing edges and beats,” Sattear added. “I suggested that maybe if you move your release point slightly towards the right side of the crease, it will adjust things. For the death overs, we also worked on creating a bowling pattern. His biggest strength is the yorker, but he had stopped bowling it. Now he’s bowling the yorker again, along with a proper pattern.”

Despite the scientific approach, Shoriful still believes in a bit of old-fashioned destiny. 

“Actually, while I was measuring my run-up, a ground staff member said to me, ‘Brother, I feel like you’ll take five wickets today.’ I said, ‘It’s not that easy.’ But if Allah wills it, it can happen. While bowling, I was bowling well, but until the last wicket, I didn’t think about getting five. Alhamdulillah, maybe Allah had written it in my destiny.”

Even his post-wicket celebration—a rhythmic dance that delighted the Dhaka crowd—wasn’t pre-planned. 

“No, there was no plan at all. I just put my hand on my head, and Naim Sheikh came and said, ‘Dance, dance!’ So it just happened in the moment. Honestly. Naim is a good friend—we’ve played together since U-19, so it happened naturally.”

Shoriful is surely in a dancing mood and, for now, moving perfectly to Sattear's tune.