Comilla picked up their 10th straight win in the ongoing ninth edition of the Bangladesh Premier League to beat Sylhet Strikers by four wickets to reach the final of the tournament for the second time in a row after being crowned champions last year.
Comilla jittered in their way to a supposed easy chase of Sylhet’s 125 but eventually got there pretty comfortably.
Sylhet fought hard despite their small total and their defeat could be narrowed down to Mushfiqur Rahim, who missed two catches and a stumping.
The first was of Liton Das, which did not cost much, but the stumping of Mosaddek Hossain and the catch of Andre Russell, both of whom finished the game for Comilla, cost Sylhet the match.
Now, they will face Rangpur Riders in the second qualifier, where a defeat would see them eliminated.
Batting first, Sylhet fell in trouble early as they lost opener Shafiqullah Ghafari (5) in the second over to Russell, and a ball later, their top batter this edition, Towhid Hridyoy, tried to take a single where it was unavailable and saw himself run out for a silver duck. In the next over, Moeen Ali, Comilla’s latest recruit, got rid of Zakir Hasan (2).
Seeing the danger, Sylhet skipper Mashrafe Mortaza promoted himself in the batting order and put an end to the landslide to put together a 56-run stand with Najmul Hossain Shanto.
His 26-run innings helped Sylhet for the time being, and alongside Najmul’s 38, they had seemingly recovered but then another quick slump saw them reduced to 78-6 as both of them and Ryan Burl (0) was back in the hut.
From there, Mushfiq (29) and George Linde (13) managed to take them to 125 as they were bowled out with 17 balls still to go.
Tanvir Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, and Russell picked up a couple of wickets, with Moeen, Sunil Narine, and Mukidul Islam Mughdo picking up one each.
In reply, Comilla were off to a flying start courtesy of Narine, who added 32 with Liton (7) in just four overs.
Narine was dismissed in the fifth over but by then he had scored 39 off just 18 balls, hitting three fours and four sixes, thus singlehandedly tilting the game in Comilla’s favour.
Comilla’s powerplay produced 58 runs, meaning they needed only 68 from their remaining 14 overs.
While Johnson Charles (4) and skipper Imrul Kayes (13) failed to do anything significant, Mosaddek Hossain (27*) and Moeen Ali’s (21) partnership of 34 runs took them very close before the latter was sent back by Rubel Hossain.
Then, Jaker Ali Anik (0) was also dismissed by the pacer, and the game seemingly turned interesting. It could have gotten even more complicated when Russell skied one off George Linde’s bowling, which was coming down at the bowler’s end.
It could have been an easy catch for Linde or Najmul, who was very close, but Mushfiq called for it and ran from his wicketkeeping position to grab the chance. However, he could not cover that much distance and in the end was rushed into trying to grab the catch and spilt it, resulting in a crucial drop.
From there, Mosaddek and Russell ensured that they won the match with 20 balls in hand.
