BPL 2017, Match 12 Review: Comilla Victorians crush the Rajshahi by 9 wickets

In a fairly one-sided encounter, Comilla Victorians never allowed the Rajshahi Kings to breath and in the end, they emerged victorious by 9 wickets. The Afghan-duo of Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan were breathing fire on the day as they collectively gave just 22 runs in 8 overs, picking up 4 wickets.

Batting first, Lendl Simmons gave Rajshahi a brilliant start. He kept spanking the ball cleanly and though Mominul Haque found it difficult to adapt, the scoreboard kept moving. In the fourth over, the Victorians drew first blood as Mohammad Nabi rattled Mominul’s stumps. Soon, in-form Rony Talukdar was dismissed by Al-Amin Hossain.

Skipper Mushfiqur Rahim and Simmons got a little partnership going, and it seemed as though they might end up scoring something decent. Yet, wickets fell like a pack of cards and to add insult to injury, Lendl Simmons was lifted off a stretcher out to the gallery as he had some injury issues. Rashid picked two wickets in quick succession, to go with one from Dwayne Bravo.

Mohammad Nabi then dismissed Mehidy Hasan and followed it up with Nihaduzzaman’s wicket in his next over. He finished with figures of 3/15 and his companion Rashid finished with a breathtaking spell of 2/7 in four overs.

Saifuddin, Al-Amin Hossain, and Dwayne Bravo showed a master-class in the death overs as they barely conceded any boundaries. Eventually, runs dried up and Rajshahi finished with a paltry 115 for the loss of 7 wickets. It wasn’t a big target and though the game was pretty much out of their hands, the Victorians ensured complacence didn’t come into play.

The top three wrap up things in style

After scoring just one run in the first over, Liton Das felt some urgency to score runs in the second and he went nuts. He scored two fours and two sixes and just when their camp thought it couldn’t get any dramatic, he fell off the final over to the veteran Farhad Reza. Nevertheless, they got the start they wanted and Jos Buttler was accompanied by Imrul Kayes.

Beginning the innings a little cautiously, both these batsmen ensured the required run-rate never touched the 6-run mark. They kept picking singles and this kept infuriating the skipper Mushfiqur, who failed to do anything remarkable with his tactics to snatch a wicket against the run of play.

Imrul Kayes struck two boundaries in the seventh over and in the next three overs, they managed to yield a lot of singles. After the 10th over, both players started striking the ball cleanly. In the 14th over of the game, Buttler struck a boundary off a no-ball from Kesrick Williams and followed it up with a huge six.

Jos Buttler’s well composed innings earned a well-deserved reward as he notched upa half-century and took his time towards the finish line. The required runs came into single digits and with a huge six over mid-wicket off Malcolm Waller, Imrul Kayes finished the innings in style. They lost just one wicket in the run chase and finished the game off in 15.1 overs.

Brief Scores

Rajshahi Kings: 115/7 in 20 overs (Lendl Simmons 40, Farhad Reza 25*; Mohammad Nabi 3/15, Rashid Khan 2/7)

Comilla Victorians: 120/1 in 15.1 overs (Jos Buttler 50*, Imrul Kayes 44*)

Man of the match: Rashid Khan (Comilla)