Mashrafe, Marlon take Comilla home

Undefeated fifties from skipper Mashrafe Mortaza and Marlon Samuels gave Comilla a thumping win by seven wickets over Tamim’s Chittagong Vikings.

When Mashrafe struck the winning boundary of Mohammad Amir, jubilant teammates and team officials rushed onto the field and lifted their captain in wild celebration.

Marlon Samuels played a good hand, and his 69 runs from52 balls with eight fours and a six gave Comilla the impetus in the end.

Player-of-the-match Mashrafe was probably the happiest person at Mirpur, simply because his breezy knock turned the tables on Chittagong when his opponents were clearly the favourites to win.

He smashed 56 from 32 balls, and showed some of his latent batting skills with four fours and three sixes to his name.

Mohammad Amir was definitely the exceptional bowler for Chittagong, and rocked Comilla early with his two-wicket burst.

The rest of the bowlers were woefully ill-disciplined, bowled on both sides of the wicket and gave away runs in the death overs too easily.

It was another bad day at the office for Tamim, and the more matches he plays as the captain, his deficiencies and drawbacks as a leader show up more and more.

He must be terribly disappointed in himself as well as in the bowlers in this loss today.

Mashrafe Mortaza promoted himself up the order, and the bold move paid off with some big shots from the bat of Comilla skipper.

With Marlon Samuels dispatching the loose ball away and keeping himself busy at the crease, Mashrafe used the long-handle to good effect.

After being smashed for 16 in his previous over by Shuvagata Hom, Shafiul took his revenge when he fooled the Comilla batter with a slower ball.

Shuvagata, who had earlier carted Taskin out of the attack entertained the Mirpur crowd with 30 runs from only 16 balls.

He played some glorious shots in his cameo, four fours and two sixes in all.

Liton Das tried to take on the Pakistani left-arm fast bowler, but Amir was too good for him. The Comilla batsman went for pull but the ball rushed him, and he couldn’t clear mid-wicket where Ziaur Rahman took a running catch.

Mohammad Amir struck gold in his first over when Imrul Kayes gave a simple a catch to Tamim at mid on for a first ball duck.

There was a bit of movement in the air and Imrul was too early in his stroke and paid the ultimate price.

Earlier, on the back of Ziaur Rahman’s cameo and Anamul Haque’s knock, Chittagong Vikings romped to 176 runs for the loss of four wickets after twenty overs were completed.

Both of the batters remained unbeaten on 39, but their knocks were starkly contrasting in nature considering the circumstances they faced.

Ziaur Rahman used the long handle during the death overs, hammered 39 from only 16 balls with two fours and three handsome sixes.

On the other hand Anamul Haque kept one secured when wickets fell in a rush, and scored 39 from 30 balls with four boundaries.

For Chittagong it was a case of batsmen getting thirties and twenties, and none of them went on to make a big score.

For Comilla, their skipper Mashrafe would have liked more control from his bolwers, and some of them were severely punished for being too short, too full or too wide.

Ashar Zaidi was the most successful bowler for Comilla Victorians, took two wickets for 29 runs in four overs.

Sunil Narine struck at the worst time for Chittagong as the West Indian spinner dismissed Yasir Ali at the backend when Vikings needed quick runs desperately.

Yasir Ali didn’t read the leg-cutter, stepped out, tried to defend but was beaten all ends up only to witness the wicketkeeper disturb the furniture.

He gave some good runs for Chittagong, contributed with 22 from 18 balls with two fours and a six to his name.

Mashrafe Mortaza sent back the wily Chamara Kapugedera for only two runs, and gave his team Comilla the upper hand after 12 overs in the game.

Ashar Zaidi brought back Comilla Victorians into the contest when Tamim Iqbal miss-timed his lofted shot straight down the throat of Mahmudul at long-off.

Tamim looked good another big knock, but fell today for a well-made 33 from 31 balls. He smashed three sixes and a single boundary during his 46-minutes stay at the crease.

Tillakaratne Dilshan was the first wicket to fall for Chittagong, not after the Sri Lankan opener gave his team a fantastic start with Tamim sold as a rock at the other end.

He smashed 36 runs from 21 balls, with six fours and a huge six to the delight of the Vikings supporters.

Dilshan came out to bat like a man possessed and gave his team Chittagong Vikings a flying start in the 5 th match of BPL-2015 at Mirpur.

Tamim took the attack to the bowlers after the blitz from Dilshan rattled Comilla.

Comilla Victorians captain Mashrafe Mortaza called it right when the coin was flipped and opted to field against Chittagong Vikings.

Chittagong Vikings are playing their third game in a row, they might be high on confidence from yesterdays win against Sylhet Super Stars.

Tamim Iqbal seems like he is in good nick scoring 50 plus runs in both the games.

Comilla need their batsmen, particularly in the top-order to show up today, and hopefully for their fans give the Victorians bowlers something to bowl at.

They capitulated without a fight, and need to fire today.

After the tense encounters in the previous games, we might be in for another nail-biter.

Comilla Victorians team

Imrul Kayes, Liton Das (Wicketkeeper), MN Samuels, Shuvagata Hom, Afsar Zazai, Mahmudul Hasan, Alok Kapali, Mashrafe Mortaza (Captain), K Santokie, SP Narine, Abu Hider

Chittagong Victorians team

Yasir Ali, Anamul Haque (Wicketkeeper), CK Kapugedera, Ziaur Rahman, Shafiul Islam, Saeed Ajmal, Asif Ahmed, Mohammad Amir, Taskin Ahmed, Tamim Iqbal (Captain), TM Dilshan

Source: The Daily Star