Comilla Victorians shrugged off their previous match defeat as they registered an overwhelming eight-wicket victory over Chittagong Vikings in the fifth match of the AKS Bangladesh Premier League T20 held on Tuesday at Sylhet International Cricket Stadium in Sylhet.
Chasing a modest winning target of 144, set by Vikings, Comilla Victorians hardly had to sweat as they reached the target with 16 balls to spare.
Victorian’s 27-year old right-handed English opener Jos Butler top-scored with a 42-ball of 48 runs before he fell to Subashish Roy. He also shared 43 runs opening stand with Liton Das (14-ball of 23) and then again paired 57-run second wicket stand with Imrul Kayes (33 n.o). His breezy knock contained three boundaries and two over boundaries.
After his cameo start Victorians never had to look back as Imrul and Marlon Samuels finished rest of the job. The duo easily completed the chase by remaining unbeaten until the end of the innings.
Kayes hit one over the boundary and one boundary during his 31-ball stay while West Indies batsman Marlon Samuels smashed 18-ball 35 runs to steer Victorians towards a comfortable chase. Samuels slammed four fours and one six.
Subashish Roy claimed two wickets giving away 24 runs.
In their earlier fixture, Comilla Victorians suffered a four-wicket defeat at the hands of Sylhet Sixers in their tournament opening match.
Earlier in the afternoon, Ask to bat first, Chittagong openers Luke Ronchi and Soumya Sarkar gave Chittagong Vikings a perfect platform but later order batsmen failed to capitalize on their openers flying start.
The duo picked up the scoring rate early in their innings as Vikings scored 54 runs in the first five overs.
Ronchi hit Dwayne Bravo for consecutive sixes in the fifth over as Bravo conceded 15 in his very first over. Ronchi perished to Mohammad Nabi in the sixth over after a 21-ball 40 while Sri Lanka Dilshan Munaweera (21) tried to accelerate the run rate scooping a slower delivery from Bravo and fell in the 12th over.
Opener Soumya was looking in good touch with bat but he got himself bowled in the 14th over to Saifuddin with the score at 106. He scored a 33-ball 38 with the help of three fours and a six.
Saifuddin then sent back to Anamul Haque in the same over and Vikings could not recover from collapse as wickets fell at regular interval as Vikings lost their way.
Later late in the innings, a cameo Sikandar Raza’s brezzy 13-ball of 18, helped Vikings to a moderate total.
Saifuddin was the most successful bowlers for Comilla as he grabbed three wickets for 24 runs in his four overs. He was well supported by Dwayne Bravo who claimed two wickets giving away 29 runs.
