BPL 4, Match 11, Review: Titans secure a win as Victorians lose third in a row

Defending champions Comilla Victorians were a different side in the last edition. This year, though, they have been found wanting to get their tactics right. With 2 defeats in 2 matches, they languished at the bottom of the points table at the start of their third match. They were up against Khulna Titans. The Titans have been lucky to have scampered through with two close wins. Running on last over heroics by skipper Mahmudullah, the Titans awaited a more dominating performance.

If there has been something going the way for the Victorians, it’s the toss. Mashrafe Mortaza won the toss and opted to field first. They left out Imad Wasim and Khalid Latif to bring in Rashid Khan and Ashar Zaidi. The Khulna Titans brought in Andre Fletcher at the top order and it was Riki Wessels who had to miss out from the playing eleven.

Andre Fletcher opened the innings with Hasanuzzaman for the Titans. Fletcher showed some special affinity to opposition skipper Mortaza in the powerplay. The Titans were off to a flying start with Fletcher looking good for his 17-ball 23 with 3 fours and a six. Mortaza had the last laugh though as he eventually got rid of him in the 5th over. Shuvagata Hom was the new man in at the crease.

Titans looked steady with 59 runs in the powerplay as Hasanuzzaman and Shuvagata started to build a partnership. The duo added 47 runs off 33 balls before Shuvagata was dismissed by Mortaza on 16 in the 11th over. A couple of overs later, Hasanuzzaman became Mortaza’s 3rd scalp after scoring 37 off 30 balls with 6 fours to his name. Skipper Mahmadullah failed with the bat yet again as he perished to Hossain Shanto after adding 11 in 14 balls.

Wickets kept tumbling towards the end of the innings and Khulna Titans could only manage to crawl to 144/9 in their 20 overs. Mortaza and Sohail Tanvir bagged 3 wickets each for the Comilla Victorians.

Comilla Victorians lost Liton Das early in their run chase as Shuvagata Hom got the first breakthrough. Imrul Kayes was joined my Marlon Samuels at the crease. Kayes looked good for his 16-ball 21 before being dismissed by Junaid Khan in the 5th over. The Victorians managed to score 40 in the powerplay with Samuels and Shanto at the crease. Shanto perished soon after and was castled by Shafiul Islam to bring Ashar Zaidi at the crease. At the half way stage Victorians were placed at 66/3.

They kept losing regular wickets thereafter, first it was Mosharraf Hossain who got the wicket of Ashar Zaidi and in the space of 42 runs the Victorians lost 5 wickets and in that process never quite got hold of the situation. A couple of run outs also helped the Titans as Comilla were out of contention of overhauling the total despite being at an attainable distance and with the last few wickets in hand.

Sohail Tanvir who was also their star with the ball tried with an unbeaten 20 but in the end, it proved insufficient to take his team home and they lost the match by 13 runs. Shafiul Islam was awarded the man of the match for the game as Titans added two points to their points tally total.

Khulna Titans: 144/9 in 20 overs (Fletcher 23, Hom 16, Tanvir 3/19, Mortaza 3/26)

Comilla Victorians: 131/9 in 20 overs (M Samuels 30; Shafiul Islam 2/19)