Fortune Barishal defeated Cumilla Victorians by 12 runs in the high-voltage match of BPL at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, on Saturday.
Comilla managed to score 165-7 in 20 overs while chasing 178 runs by Barishal. Comilla suffered three consecutive defeats in the tournament so far.
Even after a good start by the openers Liton Das and Mohammad Rizwan, where the duo added 48 runs stand, the three-time champion kept losing wickets at a regular pattern, following the dismissal of Rizwan (18).
Khusdil Shah top-scored with 43 off 27 balls with one boundary and four sixes. Then Liton scored 32 off 26 before getting run out.
ImrulKayes played a cameo innings of 28 in 15 balls hitting three 4's and a six.
Earlier, Barishal posted 177-6 in the accumulated 20 overs with the help of the highest run-getter Shakib al Hasan, who smashed 81 off 45 deliveries that featured eight 4's and four 6's. Shakib remained unbeaten while Anamul Haque, Chaturanga de Silva and Karim Jannat played brief innings of 20, 21 and 27 runs respetively.
Tanvir grabbed four-for and Nayeem Islam and Khusdil took one wicket each for Comilla.
After the match Shakib said, “We batted well, in all the four games. It wasn't a flat track, so we had to work hard for those runs. We knew we were always in the game with 4 spinners. We want our top order to score big runs, it's important to keep wickets in hand. We can get close to 100 runs in the last 10 overs if we have wickets in hand. 170-175 was a good total on this track. Karim bowled a brilliant second last over. Iftikhar was tremendous today. We got a good all-round team, that gives us the luxury to move around with the bowlers. We have a little break, hopefully we regroup and rethink before the next game”.
Comilla skipper ImrulKayes said, “We didn't bat and bowl well. I think 180 was a chaseable target. We didn't finish well in the end. Mustafizur couldn't bowl three overs (due to his injury) and that hurt us. We try to sit together and discuss what needs to be done (to get the results). We need some momentum so that we manage to bounce back in the tournament”.
That's the third successive defeat for Comilla Victorians in BPL 2023! The defending champions are just not able to get off the mark in the points table. The only thing that probably clicked for them in this match was the toss.
