Sports desk, Feb 16: Liton Das and Johnson Charles each hit a fifty to power Comilla Victorians to retain the trophy and win their fourth Bangladesh Premier League title, as they beat Sylhet Strikers by seven wickets in the final at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Thursday.
Comilla made an incredible comeback in the ongoing BPL to retain their title, as they won 11 consecutive matches after being defeated in their first three campaign matches in a row.
Earlier, Sylhet managed to throw a challenging target, banking on Najmul Hossain Shanto’s 64 off 45 balls and an unbeaten 74 off 48 from Mushfiqur Rahim.
Then Shanto, the top scorer in this edition of BPL, formed a 79-run stand with veteran Mushfiq to control the initial damage they endured.
The left-handed batsman hit his fifth fifty of this BPL, hitting nine fours and a six, before he got dismissed by Moeen Ali.
After Shanto’s dismissal, Sylhet kept losing wickets at regular intervals, but Mushfiq held the other end to pick up his fifty, hitting five fours and three sixes, and helped the side gather a challenging total to defend.
Mustafizur Rahman was the peak of the Comilla bowlers, scalping 2-31.
In reply, Comilla faced a hiccup early on as West Indies all-rounder Sunil Narine got dismissed by Rubel Hossain, scoring 10 off five balls.
Skipper Imrul Kayes followed him soon after, scoring only two off three balls, and Comilla got reduced to 34-2 inside the fourth over.
Then Liton assumed the responsibility to get the side back on track and kept punishing Sylhet bowlers alongside Charles.
In the third wicket stand they shared a 70-run stand to take the side past the hundred mark before Liton was caught by Shanto at the deep mid-wicket off Rubel.
Although Comilla lost their momentum for a bit after Liton’s dismissal, the reigning champions soon got back to the game by picking up 23 runs in the 17th over, bowled by Rubel.
While Moeen Ali made a crucial 25-run contribution off 17 balls, Johnson finished the task for Comilla as he hit two sixes and a four in the penultimate over bowled by Luke Wood to take the side almost to the shore, needing only three from the last over. With a single from Moeen, Comilla completed their run chase in the final over and emerged as the new champions of BPL.
