Chittagong Vikings win low-scoring thriller against Dhaka Dynamites

Chittagong Vikings earned an exciting three-wicket victory over league leader Dhaka Dynamites in a low-scoring thriller of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on Monday.

The Vikings needed 16 runs in the last over. Robbie Frylinck hit Mohor Sheikh for three sixes to ensure the win with one ball to spare. They ended their innings at 145/7 in 19.5 overs while replying to Dhaka’s 138/9 in 20 overs. 

Sunzamul Islam scored a single in the first ball of the last over and Robbie took the strike. He struck the second ball over midwicket for a massive six. In the third ball, he took a double, and in the fourth and fifth balls, he hit two massive sixes to outplay the current runners-up of BPL. 

Robbie remained unbeaten on 25 off 10 balls with three sixes in the last over. Later, he was adjudged man of the match.

Before the last over bravery of Robbie, Cameron Delport, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mosaddek Hossain Saikat led the Vikings to an exciting win. 

Cameron scored 30 while controlling the initial damage of losing Mohammad Shahzad for no run. Mushfiqur added 22 before Mosaddek’s 33. Shakib Al Hasan took his second four-for of the tournament but failed to avoid Dhaka’s second loss of this edition of BPL. 

Earlier, the Vikings bowlers restricted Dhaka to a moderate total of 139 in 20 overs after the Dynamites opted to bat first.

The former champions of BPL got a big blow at the start of the innings when they lost opener Rony Talukder without adding anything to the board.

The most successful bowler of Chittagong Vikings in BPL so far, Robbie Frylinck, took the scalp of Rony for a duck before bagging the wicket of Sunil Narine (18 off 9) as well. 

The Dynamites lost both of their openers on 27 runs. In the third wicket stand, they added 29 runs with the help of Heino Kuhn and Shakib Al Hasan. Heino, the South African recruit of Dhaka, played his first match and scored 18 off 21 balls. He was dismissed by Abu Jayed. 

Darwish Rasooli, the Afghan lad, came to the crease after Kuhn’s dismissal at 56 but failed to grab the chance as he fell for a duck while playing a delivery from Abu Jayed. He skied the ball and Cameron Delport did not miss to catch it. 

Shakib was the only man for Dhaka to score more than 30 runs. The captain of the Dynamites ended his innings posting 34 to the board off 34 balls. Nurul Hasan Shohan was showing a positive intend to bat before being dismissed by Delport.

Shohan scored 27 off 18 deliveries with five fours which was his best batting performance in the ongoing BPL so far. And lately, Shuvagata Hom struck 29 off 25 balls. 

Cameron Delport took three wickets for 25 runs while Robbie Frylinck and Abu Jayed bagged two wickets each to restrict the Dynamites to 139/9 in 20 overs. 

Dhaka Dynamites will play their next game against Comilla Victorians on 22 January while Chittagong Vikings will take on Rajshahi Kings on 23 January.

Source: unb