Sylhet prevail in thriller

Following an impressive showing from the batsmen, the Sylhet Sixers bowlers did their job with Taskin Ajmed bagging four wickets to restrict Chittagong Vikings to 163 for 7 to win by 5 runs at Mirpur's Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium today.

The match went right down to the wire and with 24 required off the last over, Robbie Frylinck hit two big sixes off the second and fourth delivery of the last over off Al Amin. He then hit a two and Chittagong needed seven to win off the last ball or six to tie the match but the low full toss was hit straight past the bowler and even hit the umpire and Chittagong fell short by five runs and Sylhet won their first BPL match this season under new captain David Warner.

After Cameron Delport (38 off 22) had given Vikings a strong start in chase of Sylhet's 168 for 5, Sikandar Raza had kept the Vikings on course with a 28-ball 37. Taskin removed Raza and Nayeem Hasan off back-back-back deliveries in the 18th over to help his side gain control. Frylinck cut loose with a 24-ball 44 with big sixes at the end in the 19th and 20th over off Mohammad Irfan and Al Amin but Sylhet prevailed in the end.

Earlier, Sylhet had the worst of starts when Liton Das went for naught in just the second delivery of the innings off Frylinck. Soon they were three down for just six runs as Nayeem Hasan got Nasir Hossain and then Frylinck got Sabbir Rahman out bowled in the next over. Three innings and two brilliant partnerships revived them as they posted 168 for five at the end of 20 overs and captain David Warner played a part in both of those.

First it was the 71-run partnership between him and Afif Hossain that gave Sylhet a base to build upon. Afif played freely as his bat provided the answers his side were looking for and signaled his intent with a six off pacer Abu Jayed over long on. He took the pressure off Warner at the other end with his stroke play, before Khaled Ahmed got his scalp after a 28-ball 45 which included five fours and three sixes. Warner and Nicholas Pooran took over proceedings as they put on a 70-run partnership with the former falling after completing his fifty (59 off 47 deliveries). Frylinck got Warner's wicket to bag three and it was left to Pooran to finish the innings on a high and he picked up 52 off 32 deliveries to take Sylhet to a challenging score.