BPL 2016, Match 8 Review: Mahmudullah defends 6 again in final over to stun Chittagong Vikings

Both Chittagong Vikings and Khulna Titans had started their BPL 4 campaign on a high. It was the Rangpur Riders who stunned them both in their next matches. Having suffered a crushing 9-wicket defeat each, both sides had a lot to ponder about their batting lineups. Coming into the match, it was certain that the teams would shuffle a bit with their overseas players. The track at Sher-e-Bangla stadium looked dry. Another low scoring affair was on the cards.

Win the toss and choose to bowl first was the ideal mantra for the track like this. Chittagong Vikings skipper Tamim Iqbal did just that when he called it right at the toss. The Vikings roped in left arm spinner Chaturanga de Silva in place of left-arm pacer Tymal Mills. Dwayne Smith, Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Nabi retained their places in the lineup as the other 3 overseas players.

The Khulna Titans were yet to find a balance in their side. With a lot of shuffling and shifting, they decided to promote Riki Wessels up the order as an opener. Young batsman Hasanuzzaman was brought in the squad. Kevon Cooper replaced Mohammad Asghar in the playing eleven. Skipper Mahmadullah hoped to turn things around with a new balanced unit.

Riki Wessels opened the innings with Hasanuzzaman for the Titans. The move to promote Wessels worked really well as the English batsman started fireworks right from the word go. His partner failed to impress though. Hasanuzzaman departed in the 4th over by Mohammad Nabi after scoring just 6. In the very same over, Nabi got rid of Shuvagata Hom too on 3. Wessels quickfire 17-ball 28 ended in the next over by Abdur Razzak.

Skipper Mahmudullah had yet another disappointing outing with the bat as he could manage just 6 before being dismissed by Taskin Ahmed. Khulna Titans struggled at 52/4 in 9 overs after having made 42 in the powerplay. Alok Kapali and Nicholas Pooran then played uncharacteristic T20 knocks to slow down the run scoring even further.

Kapali struggled for his 35-ball 23 before becoming Nabi’s 3rd wicket of the match. Pooran, too, scored at a strike rate below 100 with 29 off 30 balls. Kevon Cooper had a poor start to the season with a golden duck. Kudos to some late hitting by Ariful Haque (25* off 16 balls), the Titans managed to post a decent 127/7 in their 20 overs. Nabi was the pick of the bowlers with 3/22 and Taskin bagged 2/17.

The Chittagong Vikings had a disappointing start. Their powerhouse opening duo of Dwayne Smith and Tamim Iqbal failed to get them a good start. Both departed cheaply in the powerplay on identical scores of 3. What was worse that Iqbal took 12 balls for his 3 and Smith took 10 balls for scoring 3 runs. The chief reason for this was Kevon Cooper, who was in the middle of brilliant seam bowling. He bagged both the openers cheaply.

Vikings could score only 22 in their power play. Wickets continued to fall for them. Shoaib Malik (4), Zakir Hasan (8) and Anamul Haque (14) in the middle order failed to get among the runs. Vikings stuttered at 54/5 in 12 overs. It was down to Jahurul Islam and veteran Afghan all-rounder Mohammad Nabi to give Vikings some chance to get close to the target.

They did exactly that with Nabi being the aggressor. Jahurul departed after scoring 25 off 18 balls in the 16th over as Nabi rallied along with Chaturanga de Silva. De Silva hit a six and a four to get the equation in the favor of the Vikings. Nabi was striking at a strike rate close to 200. Surprisingly though, Shuvagata Hom got just one over despite giving away just 2 runs.

Cooper bowled out his spell of 4 overs for 17 runs taking 2 wickets. Shafiul Islam ripped apart the middle order by scalping a 4-wicket haul.

Mahmudullah took the ball in  his hands with 6 needed of the last over. He had earlier successfully defended 6 runs against Rajshahi Kings in their first game. He got the wicket of de Silva on the second ball as Nabi watched it from the other end batting on 39. He bowled a dot to Abdur Razzak and then dismissed him as well! It was all deja vu. With Nabi on strike and 5 needed of 2 balls, it could have been anybody’s game.

Mahmudullah bowled a dot ball and it was a six that could have saved Vikings. He dismissed Nabi on the last ball to seal the match for Titans by four runs. Nabi’s 23-ball 39 with 2 fours and 2 sixes went in vain as Chittagong Vikings suffered their second consecutive loss.

Brief Scores:

Khulna Titans 127/7 in 20 overs (Pooran 29, Wessels 28, Nabi 3/22, Taskin 2/17)

Chittagong Vikings 123/9 in 20 overs (Nabi 39, Islam 25, Shafiul Islam 4/28, Mahmudullah 3/24)