Solid Opening stand by Ahmed Shehzad and Imrul Kayes powered defending champions Comilla Victorians to record an overwhelming eight-wicket victory over Barisal Bulls in the Bangladesh Premier League T20 held on Tuesday at She-r-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium at Mipur in the city.
Chasing a winning target of 143 runs set by Barisal Bulls, Comilla hardly had to sweat as they comfortably reach home making 145 in 19 overs for the loss of two wickets.
Pakistani recruit Shehzad (61) and Kayes (46) gave a solid start to Comilla contributing 93 runs for the opening stand to shatter Barisal’s hope after Marlon Samuels (27 n.o) and Khalid Latif (7n.o) confirmed Comilla’s victory to remain unbeaten till the end of innings.
Dawid Malan and Rumman Raees took one wicket each conceding 8 and 38 runs respectively.
Nabil Samad of Comilla Victorians was named the player of the match for his brilliant bowling performance in the match.
With the day’s win, bottom-ranked Comilla Victorians secured four points from nine matches while Barisal Bulls remained at their previous credit of six points from ten outings.
Earlier, defending champions Comilla Victorians led by Mashrafe Mortaza restricted Barisal Bulls to 142 for 8 after 20 overs, after Bulls skipper Mushfiqur Rahim won the toss and opted to bat first.
Comilla bowlers produced a tight bowling spells and didn’t allow the Barisal batsmen to build any effective partnerships, and took wickets at regular intervals to hurt Barisal’s chances of a challenging total. The ninth wicket stand of 25 in just 1.2 overs gave Barisal to post a respectable total.
Nabil Samad was the pick Comilla bowler as he claimed three wickets for 17 runs in four overs. Rashid Khan captured two while Shahadat Hossain and Mohammad Saifuddin chipped in with a wicket apiece.
