Liton Das took the storm first. Then the bowlers of Khulna fell into the hands of Moin Ali. After Liton’s 41 off 16 balls, Moin played a devastating innings of 75 off 35 balls, in which Comilla Victorians got a collection of 18 runs. Khulna Tigers lost by a huge margin of 75 runs after the first over. This is the biggest win as a run in BPL this season.
Comilla, which is currently at the top of the table, has secured its first qualifier match with Fortune Barisal. On the other hand, if they want to go to the play-offs, the match against Comilla tomorrow could be almost a lifeline for Khulna, if Chittagong Challengers win their match.
Dhaka has never seen such a big run in the previous day’s matches. However, after losing the toss, Liton started the storm for Comilla in the second over, attacking left-arm spinner Nabil Samad. After 18 runs in that over, Khaled Ahmed got 19 more runs in the over.
Nabil brought the first breakthrough to Khulna by returning Mahmudul Hasan who was a spectator of Liton’s storm. However, Comilla made 52 runs in the powerplay. Lytton, however, did not score a half-century until the end, when Thisara Pereira caught off the ball off the stumps with a loose shot. Earlier, Mushfiqur could not take a fairly hard catch in this right-handed 721 run, Khaled made an easy catch in 34 runs.
After Liton, Imrul also returned quickly, at that time Khulna was able to reduce the run rate of Comilla quite a bit. After the powerplay, Khulna took only 29 runs in 8 overs and took 2 wickets for two boundaries. However, in the 13th over, Mehedin Hasan was attacked by Moin, the wind of the match also changed direction towards Comilla. Moin hit three sixes in that over to Mehdi over a cow corner, long on and mid wicket, and scored 20 runs.
Mushfiqur then brought thisara Perera along with the majestic government, Khaled, but could not stop Moin. Faf du Plessis, on the other hand, was focused on changing the strike, working as Moin’s assistant. In the 18th over, Moin got a half-century off just 23 balls with two sixes in a row to Soumya. After hitting a six in that over, Du Plessis was caught by Yasir Ali in the cover, scoring 36 off 36 balls. Earlier, his partnership with Moin was 63 off 46 balls.
Moin stopped in the 19th over with a catch by Perera. The right-hander hit 9 sixes with 1 four in the innings. Nicolas Puran is the only batsman to have shown such a four-six contrast in an earlier innings in the BPL. In 2019, he hit 9 sixes with 1 four in an innings of 72 runs from 46 balls against Dhaka Dynamites for Sylhet Sixers. Moin returned but scored 14 runs in the last over and Comilla made 6 runs in the last 5 overs.
In the first over, Andre Fletcher overtook Nahidul Islam, the most successful bowler of Powerplay in the tournament till the first over, and scored 18 runs. Comilla captain Imrul should have called Mostafizur Rahman on an urgent basis. In his first over, the left-arm pacer pushed Khulna to the backfoot with a double injury. Ronnie Talukder and Fletcher were caught by Imrul at mid-on for two consecutive balls.
After that over of Mostafiz, Khulna was able to hit only one boundary in Powerplay. When Yasir Ali and Mushfiqur Rahim returned in two consecutive overs, their pressure increased. Yasir, who made 18 off 19 balls, made a catch off Moin’s ball, while Mushfiqur, playing 4 balls, returned with 0 runs off Abu Haider. Khulna could not form a partnership after that, the required run-rate has just moved away from them.
Sikandar Raja, Soumya Sarkar or Mehedi Hasan — no one could meet the demand of the situation. Despite hitting two sixes, Thisara Perera could not score more than 26 runs from 23 balls. Forgetting the nightmare of the first over, off-spinner Nahidul came back brilliantly, finally taking 2 wickets with 26 runs in 4 overs. Left-arm pacer Abu Haider was great in the middle overs, taking 2 wickets for just 19 runs in 4 overs. Moin also took 2 wickets. Khulna has a long batting line-up so it has fallen on its face with 3 balls left in the innings.
Short score
Comilla Victorians: 18/7 in 20 overs (Moin 65, Liton 41, Du Plessis 36; Perera 2/26, Nabil 1/24, Soumya 1/31)
Khulna Tigers: 123 in 19.3 overs (Perera 26, Soumya 22) ; Abu Haider 3/19, Mostafizur 2/18, Moin 2/20, Nahidul 2/26)
Result: Comilla won by 75 runs.