Comilla Victorians rode on Sunil Narine's top notch all-round performance to clinch their third Bangladesh Premier League's (BPL) title in a thriller of a contest which they won by just one run against Fortune Barishal on Friday (February 18).
West Indian Narine, first smashed a blistering 23-ball 57 and then followed it up with 2/15 while bowling to put the opponents in all sorts of bother.
Imrul Kayes’ Comilla claimed their third BPL glory as the last two titles came in 2019 and 2015.
Chasing a competitive target of 152, Barishal's Shykat Ali smashed a rollicking half-century (58 off 34) while Chris Gayle (33 off 31) played the knock of a senior batter to put Barishal in control of the chase. But both batters were dismissed along with captain Shakib Al Hasan (7 off 7) and despite the best efforts of the tailenders, Comilla managed to win. Tanvir Islam (2/25) was the pick of the bowlers for Comilla.
However, Barishal had a poor start with their in-form opening batter Munin Shahriar departing early, but Shykat Ali and Chris Gayle’s fantastic knocks got them in the driver’s seat. They once looked all set to win, needing 18 runs from 18 balls, but excellent death bowling by Sunil Narine, Mustafizur Rahman and Shohidul Islam clinched the title for Comilla Victorians.
Earlier, Comilla posted 151 for nine against Fortune Barishal in the summit clash of the BPL at Mirpur.
Sunil Narine hit 57 off 23 with five fours and five sixes while Moeen Ali scored 38 off 32 for the Victorians. Despite losing regular wickets, Victorians were able to post a challenging total riding on the batting of these two..
Three of the top four— Liton Das, Faf du Plessis, Mahmudul Hasan Joy— failed to reach a double-digit score.
In 2.5 overs, Comilla posted 40 thanks to Narine’s outstanding batting display. The first-wicket stand was broken by Shakib Al Hasan. The Barishal captain came to bowl in the third over of the innings and removed Liton for four.
In the sixth over, Mehedi Hasan Rana removed Narine for 57. Mehedi started the over conceding a six. But he managed to recover and remove Narine. Najmul Hossain Shanto took a great catch in the deep.
Imrul Kayes, the struggling captain of Comilla, failed with the bat once again scoring 12 off 12. He was removed by Dwayne Bravo— the bowler who helped Barishal to come to the final playing so well throughout the event.
Abu Hider Rony scored 12 playing 27 balls. He helped Comilla to play all of the stipulated overs.
For Barishal, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Shafiqul Islam scalped two wickets each while Shakib, Bravo and Mehedi bagged one wicket each.
