Comilla batters trip up in final

Comilla Victorians underwhelmed with the bat in the all-important final of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), as they lost early wickets and then failed to keep the scoreboard ticking in the middle-overs against an accurate bowling performance from Fortune Barishal yesterday.

The defending champions were sent to bat by Barishal in front of a jampacked Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur.

Comilla had been aggressive in the first six overs throughout the tournament, with an average Powerplay score of 47.57 for the loss of 1.5 wickets leading up to the final.

Comilla went with the same approach in the all-important final, despite what had transpired in the last two evening matches at the venue.

Both qualifiers were held under floodlights in Mirpur, where the new ball moved around for the first few overs and then the conditions turned ideal for batting for the rest of the match.

Rangpur Riders, the team that had topped the points-table after the league phase, were sent to bat first in both qualifiers, lost three wickets inside the Powerplay and couldn't recover from it, losing to Comilla and Barishal respectively.

Despite the threat, Comilla stayed true to the formula that had gotten them success earlier in the tournament and seemingly paid the price.

They managed to score 49 in the Powerplay but lost the wickets of Sunil Narine and in form batters Towhid Hridoy and skipper Liton Das.

Barishal's pacers Kyle Mayers and Mohammad Saifuddin swung the ball early on with the former getting the wicket of Narine in the first over.

But it was Tamim's decision to bring on pacer James Fuller in the Powerplay that did the trick for Barishal as the tall Kiwi quick banged the ball short to claim his first victim, Liton, with an easy catch to third man.

Fuller then dismissed Hridoy with a full and wide delivery as the right-hander went hard at the ball but only managed to top edge it straight to third man.

Things then went from bad to worse for Comilla as they scored just 43 runs between overs 7-15 and lost two wickets.

Comilla's decision to send Mahidul Islam at number five while they had Moeen Ali and Andre Russell at their disposal didn't pay dividends as his painstaking innings off 38 off 35 didn't give the innings any momentum heading into the final overs.

He finally got out in the 17th over to Mohammad Saifuddin, making way for Russell, whose 27 off 14 balls with the help of four sixes gave Comilla a somewhat respectable score of 154-6.

Comilla, who averaged 10.77 runs per over in the last five overs before the final, managed to score 55 runs from over 16-20 thanks to Russell but losing too many wickets at the top and poor batting at the middle kept them from setting a better target.

Thanks to the bowlers, it was Barishal who held the advantage at the halfway point of the final.