It was an all-round performance came from Sunil Narine as Dhaka Dynamites knocked Chittagong Vikings out beating them by six wickets in the eliminator match of Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) T20 held on Monday at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium at Mirpur.
Chasing a moderate winning target of 136 runs set by Chittagong, Dhaka Dynamites reached home for the loss of four wickets with 20 balls to spare, reports BSS.
Dhaka Dynamites will now play against losers of qualifier-1 scheduled to be held Wednesday (February 6) at the same venue.
The two openers — Upal Thanranga and Sunil Narine– gave Dhaka an ideal start contributing 44 runs for the opening stand.
The Sri Lankan recruit Tharanga blazed 43-ball off 51 runs hitting seven boundaries before fell to Nayeem Hasan while Narine made a quick fire 16-ball off 31 runs with the help of six boundaries and one over boundary before he perished to Khaled Ahmed.
Khaled Ahmed then scalped back to back wickets of one down Rony Talukder (20) and Dhaka’s skipper Shakib Al Hasan (0) to bring fight back Chittagong in a match but Nurul Hasan and Kieron Pollard took Dhaka at home to remain unbeaten on 20 and 7 runs respectively.
Khaled Ahmed was the most successful bowler as he claimed three Chittagong’s wickets giving away 20 runs.
Sunil Narine of Dhaka Dynamites was named the player of the match for his impressive all-round performance in the game.
After the match winning Dhaka’s skipper Shakib Al Hasan said it was a very good team effort as everyone was up to the challenge and the game was very important for us. Both teams playing Qualifier-2 will be tough to face, but we have the momentum and that’s a positive sign.
We always did well here in Dhaka, the crowd has been supporting us throughout the season. We needed to give something back to them.”
Losing Chittagong Vikings skipper Mushfiqur Rahim said: “We had a good campaign, but we needed to be on top of our game against Dhaka. We were 20 25 runs short, 160 would have been challenging, lost too many wickets and didn’t get a partnership. It’s difficult to defend small totals and it’s unfair to blame the bowlers. We have had a couple of youngsters who showed the world as to what they could do. Very happy with how we played right through, hopefully, we will come back and win next time.”
Earlier, a fierce bowling spells by Sunil Narine saw Chittagong Vikings restricted at a moderate total of 135 for 8 from their allotted 20 overs after they opted to bat first.
Rubel Hossain struck early on Chittagong’s innings removing opener Yasir Ali for 8 but another opener Cameron Delport and Shadman Islam steadied the innings contributing 34 runs for the second wicket stand.
Delport composed a well knock off 27-ball off 36 hitting five boundaries and one over boundary before he fall victim of unfortunate run out while Shadman Islam made 19-ball off 24-run with the help of two boundaries and one over boundary before he perished to Sunil Narine.
Middle order batsman Mosaddek Hossain (40), the top scorer of Chittagong’s innings, looked confident with bat but he hardly failed to get support to stretch his innings as Narine continued inroad picking up wickets in regular intervals. Mosaddek hit three boundaries and one over boundary during his 35- ball stay on the crease.
Sunil Narine, the wrecker in chief caused the major, as he claimed four Chittagong’s wickets conceding 15 runs.