Comilla Victorians became the first team to qualify for the play-offs in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League when they beat Chittagong Vikings by seven wickets in a rain-hit match on Tuesday.
After a delayed start, Comilla bowlers delivered a disciplined performance to restrict the hosts to 116-8 in a 19-over-a-side match before Tamim Iqbal struck an unbeaten 54 off 51 balls to help the side cruise to 117-3 in 16.4 overs.
Tamim smashed four fours and two sixes in his valiant innings, notching up his second fifty in the ongoing tournament that guided Comilla to their third successive win, the side’s seventh win in 10 matches.
Chittagong, on the contrary, now conceded their third successive loss – all in their home turf – which came after a flying start to the tournament when they won six of their first seven matches.
Mosaddek Hossain played unbeaten 43 off 25 balls to give Chittagong innings some respectability after the side reeled to 70-7 at one stage at the rain-soaked Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium.
Rain intervened immediately after Chittagong started their innings, forcing more than half-hour break, which broke the concentration of their batsmen and they started losing wickets straightway.
Mohammad Saifuddin trapped Shadman Islam, who was playing his first match in the tournament, in front on naught only in the third ball after rain-break before the bowler handed an in-form Yasir Ali a duck in the same over.
Mohammad Shahzad tried to play an anchor role and played quite an eccentric innings but he failed to get support from the other end as Chittagong kept on losing wickets frequently.
Shahzad was finally run-out for 33 off 35 balls after a mix-up with Mosaddek, who later compensated by hitting three sixes and as many fours to give their bowlers something to defend.
Man-of-the-match Shahid Afridi was their most successful bowler for Comilla taking 2-10 while Saifuddin and Wahab Riaz finished with identical 2-23.
Comilla in reply lost Anamul Haque early but Tamim and Shamsur Rahman assembled 65 runs for the second wicket to put them on course before Abu Jayed dismissed Shamsur (36 off 22) and Imrul Kayes (eight) in quick succession.
Tamim flicked Jayed towards fine leg for a boundary to bring his fifty and in the process became the first Bangladeshi player to score 5,000 runs in Twenty20 cricket.
Thisara, who brought the score level with a six off Khaled Ahmed, did the rest to stay unbeaten on 10 facing seven balls.
