Comilla Victorians clinched the title of the Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League 2022 in a tense thriller where they defeated Fortune Barishal by only one run at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka on Friday.
Winning the toss, Comilla elected to bat first and managed to score 151-9 in 20 overs.
In reply, Barishal fell just one run short at the end as they managed to score 150-8 in 20 overs.
This is the third BPL title for Comilla Victorians.
Narine came to open the innings with Liton Das and made a solid start.
They managed 36 runs in the first two overs as Narine replicated his previous innings where he smashed the quickest half-century in BPL and was threatening to do so in the final but finally reached the landmark in 21 balls with five boundaries and four sixes.
Comilla raced to fifty in just 4.1 overs but after they lost Narine the tempo dropped as they kept losing wickets in regular intervals.
Shakib drew first blood for Barishal. He bowled Liton for only four and then Narine skied one against Mehedi Hasan Rana and got caught when Nazmul Hossain Shanto grabbed the catch.
Mahmudul Hasan Joy got run out and Faf Du Plessis gave a return catch to Mujeeb-ur-Rahman which kept Comilla in tatters.
Moeen Ali tried to play the anchor role, staying in the crease till the last over but got run out in the first ball while attempting a risky double.
With Abu Hider, he added 53 runs from 51 balls to salvage Comilla and got out after scoring 38 runs from 32 balls.
Mujeeb and Shafiqul Islam took two wickets each.
In reply, Barishal stumbled in the beginning as they lost their opener Munim Shahriar in the second over for a duck.
Shykat came in as the one-down batsman which was a surprise move by Barishal as he was dropped from the team after the group stage match against the same opposition where he got out without scoring.
The gamble worked out as Shykat played a decisive knock of 58 runs from 38 balls, hitting 11 boundaries and one six.
With Chris Gayle on the other end, Shykat took the attacking role and gave Barishal the much-needed boost.
But the colour started to change after Shykat departed as Barishal failed to build any more partnerships in the latter part of their innings.
Gayle got out for 33 runs playing 31 balls and just the moment Barishal needed him to fire, he was out leg before the wicket by Narine. Gayle went upstairs by taking a review but the decision stayed.
Next to go was Shakib Al Hasan for only seven runs. Mustafizur Rahman took a diving catch at point.
Shakib was a bit unhappy because he thought the ball hit the ground before taking shelter inside Mustafiz's palm but the TV replay could not show anything to overturn the soft signal which was out.
The BPL final could be a perfect stage for young cricketers like Nurul Hasan Sohan, Nazmul Hossain Shanto and Towhid Hridoy to be a hero but they all ended up as villains as the team suffered a heartbreaking defeat.
The pressure was mounting as the asking run-rate was getting higher and Narine finished his bowling spell with a beautiful over where he conceded only two runs and picked the wicket of Dwayne Bravo which tightened the screws.
Mustafizur Rahman did the 19th over, removed Nazmul in his second ball of the over and conceded only six runs which put Barishal in a complex situation in the last over where they needed 10 runs from six deliveries.
Coming to bowl at the final over, Shohidul Islam started with a dot ball followed by two singles, then a wide and a double kept the hope alive for Barishal.
In the fifth ball, Hridoy tried to take the aerial route but found Tanvir in the backward square region but he dropped the catch to add more drama.
Barishal needed three of the final ball. It was a length delivery outside off and Hridoy only could manage to punch it towards the cover for a single.
They chased an impossible double and eventually Mujeeb-ur-Rahman got run out to ensure the misfortune of Fortune Barishal.
