Sunil Narine, cracked a 23-ball 57 and bagged two crucial wickets to help Comilla Victorians win the BPL title.
Comilla Victorians beat Fortune Barishal by one run in thrilling final to secure the title of Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, Mirpur in Dhaka on Friday (February 18).
Comilla, thanks to Sunil Narine smashed a 23-ball 57 , scored 151 runs by losing 9 wickets in 20 overs the team skipper won the toss and opted to bat first.
Narine hit five fours and as many sixes for a strike rate of 247.82. earlier in the BPL, Sunil Narine had cracked a 13-ball 50. Only Chris Gayle, Yuvraj Singh and Hazratullah Zazai had done that before him.
Moeen Ali smashed 38 runs from 32 balls while Abu Hider Rony posted 19 runs off 27 balls.
In reply, Barishal, thanks to brilliant innings of Shykat Ali’s 58 runs, managed to score 150 runs by losing eight wickets in 20 overs.
Imrul Kayes scored 12 runs off 12 balls while wicket-keeper Liton Das, Mahmudul Hasan Joy and Faf du Plessis could not reach two digits. Liton and du Plessis scored four runs each while Mahmudul Joy bagged eight runs. Ariful Haque and Shohidul Islam hit a duck each.
For Barishal, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Shafiqul Islam bagged two wickets each. Dwayne Bravo, Shakib Al Hasan and Mehedi Hasan Rana shared a wicket each.
In Chase, Barishal’s Shykat Ali smashed 58 runs off 34 balls with 11 fours and a six.
The Fortune Barishal innings got off to a horror start (5 for 1) but Chris Gayle and 28-year-old and former Bangladesh U-19 World Cupper Shykat Ali featured in a 74-run off 51 balls second wicket stand to bring Barishal back in the fight.
Then Narine ruined Gayle’s party, trapping the burly Jamaican, leg before wicket for 33 while Nurul Hasan bagged 14 runs and Najmul Hossain Shanto scored 12 runs.
However, no other batsmen of Barishal could not reach two digits.
Barishal needed 16 off the last 12 balls. Mustafizur bowled a tight 19th and got the wicket of Najmul Hossain Shanto to leave Barishal to get 10 off six balls.
Shohidul held his nerves and was fairly tight and with Barishal needing 3 off one ball, Mujeeb was run out!.
For Comilla, Sunil Narine and Tanvir Islam shared two wickets each.
Mustafizur Rahman and Shohidul Islam got a wicket each.