Shahid Afridi stars with bat, Comilla beat Sylhet by 4 wickets
Comilla Victorians started Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) campaign with style as they beat Sylhet Sixers by four wickets on Sunday at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.
ShahidAfridi, the Pakistan star, played a pivotal role for Victorians as he struck unbeaten 39 off 25 balls to ensure the win.
Sixers post 127 for eight in the first innings and Victorians chased it down with one ball to play. Victorians won the battle by the superb batting effort of Afridi. He hit Alok Kapali for a six in the fifth ball of last over of the match and finished scoring 130 for six in 19.5 overs.
Comilla started replying with a 16-run stand of opener Tamim Iqbal and Evin Lewis.
The West Indian star Lewis failed to impress and ImrulKayes followed him as he failed to add anything in the board.
Tamim Iqbal added 35 on the board and Steve Smith and Shoaib Malik also contributed with 16 and 13 respectively. But Afridi made the finishing touch with unbeaten 39. He hit five fours and two sixes along the way.
Al Amin Hossain and Sandeep Lamichhane took two wickets each for Sylhet and Pakistani recruit Mohammad Irfan took one wicket. Taskin Ahmed conceded 31 runs in four overs but failed to grab any wicket.
Earlier, Sylhet Sixers who finished the BPL 2017 at the bottom of the table, scored 127 for eight wickets after sending to bat first. They lost the first wicket just having one run in the board.
Liton Das was the first man to get dismissed. The right-handed batsman tried to slog-sweep a Mahedi Hasan delivery but managed only a top edge. Steve Smith, the Comilla captain did not make a mistake at midwicket zone to take the catch.
They lost another three wickets— David Warner (14), AfifHossain (19) and TowhidHridoy (8)-- before posing 50 on the board.
Warner was dismissed after a misunderstanding with Towhid Hridoy who is captain of Bangladesh U-19 team. The young lad failed to leave crease at times that resulted in Warner’s run-out which seemed a controversial decision in TV replays.
Sylhet’s poor batting continued as Sabbir Rahman managed seven runs only. But, Nicholas Pooran, Sylhet’s West Indian recruit showed some resistance with the bat as he scored 41 which is the highest total for his team. AlokKapali, the former national player added 19 to the team total that helped Sylhet to gather the total of 127 for eight wickets.
MahediHasan, Mohammad Shahid and Mohammad Saifuddin took two wickets each while Pakistan star ShahidAfridi scalped one.
Comilla will play their next match against Rangpur Riders on 8 January at 5:20 pm and Sylhet will face Chittagong Vikings on January 9 at 12:30 pm.
