Chittagong Vikings beat Comilla Victorians by four wickets
Mushfiqur Rahim, Chittagong Vikings' skipper, smashed a tremendous 75 off 41 balls on Sunday evening against Comilla Victorians that helped to register the second successive win for his team in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League (BPL).
In the last five overs, the Vikings needed to score at an average of 12.8. Mushfiqur accomplished it with style scoring 75 off 41 balls with seven fours and four sixes overshadowing Thisara Perera's unbeaten 74.
In the first innings of the match, Thisara struck 74 off 26 balls to propel the Victorians to a challenging total of 184/5. But at the end of the match, Thisara finished being in the losing side.
The Vikings started the biggest successful chase of BPL's sixth season so far with a 58-run opening stand between Cameron Delport and Mohammad Shahzad. Delport departed scoring 13 as the first dismissed batsman of the Vikings. But, Shahzad ended up with an explosive 46 off 27 balls. The Afghan batsman put up the ideal platform for the Vikings.
Mushfiqur Rahim came to the middle after the dismissal of two wickets and departed with seven runs needed to win in the last over. Liam Dawson came to bowl the last over and ended up conceding eight runs in four balls. Robbie Frylinck, the South African recruit of the Vikings, hit Dawson for a six and ensured an imperious win for the Vikings.
This is the third win of Chittagong Vikings in four matches, and Comilla's second loss in four matches as well.
Earlier in the match, Thisara grabbed the limelight of BPL hitting a 20-ball fifty in his first appearance this season.
Thisara joined the Victorians just this morning and took the field. He added 98 runs along with Mohammad Saifuddin in the sixth wicket stand off 40 balls to post a challenging total of 185 runs.
Chittagong Vikings won the toss and decided to bowl first. Their decision seemed to be a right one until Saifuddin and Perera stood up in the sixth wicket stand.
The Victorians lost their star batsman Tamim Iqbal without posting a single run on the board. Tamim got dismissed by a Robbie Frylinck delivery podding a catch to the wicketkeeper.
In the second wicket stand, Anamul Haque and Evin Lewis added 21 runs. Anamul managed 10 off 10 before falling to Abu Jayed Rahi. Imrul Kayes came into the middle and spread some hope scoring 24 off 21 balls. But he failed to maintain his good start.
After the dismissal of Imrul Kayes, Comilla suffered an abrupt blow when Evin Lewis has been stretchered out due to a leg injury. He scored 38 runs off 34 balls with six fours.
Comilla lost five wickets in 86 runs in 13.2 overs. And right after that, Saifuddin and Perera made that unbelievable stand of 98 runs.
Perera completed his fifty in 20 balls. After hitting the fifty, he attacked Robbie Frylinck in the 19th over to hit 30 runs with four sixes and one four.
He remained unbeaten for 74 and Saifuddin companied him with another unbeaten innings of 26 off 19 balls.
Khaled Ahmed, the right-arm pacer of Bangladesh, took three wickets for the Vikings while Robbie Frylinck and Abu Jayed Rahi took one wicket each.
Comilla Victorians will face off Sylhet Sixers in their home - Sylhet International Stadium - on January 15 at 6:30pm while Chittagong Vikings will lock horns against Khulna Titans on January 19 at 6:30pm at the same venue.
