BPL 4, Match 19 Review: Comilla Victorians finally register first win of the season

After a thoroughly entertaining game between the Titans and Dynamites, action moved to the second game. Comilla Victorians played the Rajshahi Kings in an important encounter. For the Victorians, the match was as good as being the do or die match. The Kings, too, needed a win under their belt to stay in contention for the top slots in the points table.

Darren Sammy, the Rajshahi Kings skipper, decided to bowl first and play by his strengths. They played the same overseas quartet that featured for them in their last match. The Comilla Victorians were the ones under the scanner. They are the defending champions but yet to find a win in this edition of the tournament. Skipper Mashrafe Mortaza roped in the services of Dutch all-rounder Ryan ten Doeschate for this match. Pakistani batsman Khalid Latif was also drafted in the playing eleven.

Latif and Nazmul Hossain Shanto opened the innings for the Comilla Victorians. After a sluggish start, Latif cut loose but only to be dismissed by Farhad Reza in the 4th over for 6. Star batsman Ahmed Shehzad was the new man in. He has been getting starts and giving hopes this season but was due for a big one. This was not his day either. He departed after scoring 11 and gave his wicket to Mehedi Hasan. The Victorians posted just 27 runs in the powerplay.

Shanto was then joined by Imrul Kayes, who found himself demoted to number 4 from the opening slot. Both of them added 43 runs off 33 balls for the 3rd wicket to give some stability to the innings. It was Darren Sammy who broke the stand in the 12th over. He got the wicket of Shanto on 41 (40). Kayes departed soon after as he was run out on 35 (25) by substitute fielder Nazmul Islam.

Sammy then accounted for dismissing his captaincy counterpart Mortaza on 10. Comilla Victorians were staring at a crash. Some late batting by ten Doeschate (21* off 15 balls) and Sohail Tanvir (15* off 15 balls) saw them post 152/5 in their 20 overs.

Rajshahi Kings went in with the opening duo of Junaid Siddique and Mominul Haque. The Kings had a horrid cavalcade of dismissals in the early overs of the chase. Siddique was the first to be dismissed on 10 by Sohail Tanvir. The veteran Pakistani then sent back the dangerous in-form batsman Sabbir Rahman for a golden duck. Umar Akmal struggled for his 12-ball 3 before Mohammad Saifuddin sent him packing.

Saifuddin then accounted for the dismissal of Nurul Islam on 9. The Rajshahi Kings were struggling at 66/4 in 11.3 overs. The only positive for them was Mominul battling alone. He was almost the lone run scorer as wickets kept falling from the other end. Mominul reached his fifty but departed just when he had started to look threatening. Ryan ten Doeschate dismissed him on 53 off 43 balls with 5 fours and a six.

The Comilla Victorians struck gold next. They got the prized scalp of Kings’ skipper Darren Sammy. Sammy was run out on a golden duck to have Kings reeling on 91/6 in 14.1 overs. It was Mehedi Hasan who joined Samit Patel at the crease then. Wickets kept tumbling and Rajshahi could never make it to the game.

They were bundled out for 120 in 19 overs to lose by 32 runs. This gave the Comilla Victorians their first win of the season.

Brief Scores:

Comilla Victorians 152/5 in 20 overs (Shanto 41, Kayes 34, Sammy 2/34, Reza 1/26)

Rajshahi Kings 120/10 in 19 overs (Mominul 53, Patel 12, Tanvir 4/18, Saifuddin 3/27)