BPL 2017, Match 34 Review: Comilla Victorians defeat Dhaka Dynamites to top the table

Comilla Victorians pipped the Dhaka Dynamites in all departments to win an exciting encounter between the two sides on Wednesday. The 12-run victory for Comilla means that they’ve overtaken Khulna Titans to get to top of the points table, with 14 points and a Net Run Rate (NRR) of +0.682 in their kitty. In spite of being well-fought till the very end, Comilla managed to tip the scales in their favour and outdo the opposition to emerge victorious.

The pitch at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, Chittagong has had teams in two minds from the very first match. While some teams have chosen to bat first on winning the toss, Dhaka Dynamites’ captain Shakib Al Hasan opted to bowl first in Wednesday’s match. Put in to bat, Comilla Victorians saw a brisk first-wicket partnership worth 60 runs develop between skipper, Tamim Iqbal and Liton Das, giving the team a boost early on in the innings. Imrul Kayes followed with a short-lived but significant innings of 26 runs and Marlon Samuels (39) carried on the batting efforts for his side at a commendable strike rate of 144.44.

The last two overs saw a flurry of Comilla batsmen take the field after the departure of Samuels off the bowling of Kevon Cooper. Shoaib Malik (9*), Haasan Ali(8*) and DJ Bravo (6) hit the last moment boundaries and sixers to take their team to a slightly below-par yet respectable total of 167-6 at the end of 20 overs. Kevon Cooper was the standout bowler for the Dhaka Dynamites as he managed to get three scalps, albeit at the cost of more runs than he would’ve liked to. Apart from Sunil Narine (4-0-15-0), who managed to curb the run flow but without a wicket, every other bowler was hit for runs.

Comilla bowlers outfox Dhaka to clinch the match

In reply to Comilla Victorians’ total, Dhaka started bleeding wickets from the second over itself. After Comilla keeper, Liton Das forced a reluctant umpire to refer a stumping decision upstairs, opener Evin Lewis had to depart at a personal score of just 6 runs. Opener Joe Denly held his ground to play a laudable knock of 49 runs off 39 balls as wickets kept tumbling at the other end. Captain, Shakib Al Hasan(7) was unimpressive with the bat and the decision of sending Narine(5) down the order didn’t click for his side either.

As Joe Denly was bowled out by Mohammad Saifuddin, Dhaka were staring down the barrel with an appalling score of 83-5 to their credit. Although Kieron Pollard (27) and Mosaddek Hossain (17) offered some resistance in the latter half of the innings, the former was caught out by substitute Solomon Mire and the latter was unceremoniously run-out, owing to a mix-up with Pollard between the wickets. A responsibility, far too gargantuan for the tail-end of a team, was thrust upon the lower-order of the Dhaka Dynamites and the result was inevitable.

With 21 runs required off the last over, Dhaka fans would’ve been praying for a miracle to come off the bat of Jahurul Islam, but it was not to be! Islam’s wicket was cleaned up by Saifuddin in the third ball of the ultimate over and with him, walked away Dhaka’s hope of winning the match. Dwayne Bravo was the most successful bowler for his side with figures of 4-0-31-3, as Comilla Victorians won the match by 12 runs.

Brief Scores

Comilla Victorians– 167/6 in 20 overs (M Samuels 39; K Cooper 3/42)

Dhaka Dynamites– 155/8 in 20 overs (J Denly 49; DJ Bravo 3/31)

Player of the match– Dwayne Bravo