A complete team effort and tactical approach from Barisal Bulls enabled them to stun Chittagong Vikings and hand the latter their fourth defeat in the Bangladesh Premier League 2015 by a handsome 33-run margin yesterday.
Desperately seeking for a win, Chittagong made three changes for their first home game as Elton Chigumbura came in for Jeevan Mendis, Kamran Akmal for Saeed Ajmal and young left-arm spinner Asif Hasan replacing Yasir Ali. However, the move to play with six batsmen backfired pretty badly once Tamim Iqbal returned for a single-digit score in pursuit of the big total. Eventually, the home side were bundled out for a mere 137.
Compared to the first phase in Dhaka, 170 was a humongous total which came largely on the back of another calculative knock from Barisal skipper Mahmudullah. The right-hander entered to bat with his side tottering at three for 12 in 2.2 overs after being put into bat first on a pitch where neither captain were sure of how it will behave. But the pressure slowly wore off, courtesy of some wayward bowling from the hosts as Barisal managed to bag 98 runs from the last seven overs.
Tamim took five balls to get off the mark, but opened the run-chase with a perfect flick over mid-wicket off Mohammad Sami. However, he lasted just eight balls as he top-edged in-form pacer Al Amin Hossain in an attempt to clear the on-side field.
When Akmal was found short, while lazily jogging for a single following a push to mid-on in his first ball, from a direct hit from Kevon Cooper, Chittagong’s fate could be predicted as Tillakaratne Dilshan’s four fours only entertained the full-packed Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium for a short time.
Barisal, unlike Chittagong, were a superb fielding side as the runs dried up and despite batting for more than an hour Naeem Islam only managed 38 from 40 balls before becoming Cooper’s third victim on the night.
Before the 3-28, Cooper was also instrumental in Barisal’s batting as the West Indian struck two sixes to remain unbeaten on 21 from 11 balls. The momentum however, was handed to the Barisal unit after Tamim made some poor decisions while shuffling his bowlers in the early stage.
Despite triggering a collapse and restricting the Bulls to 63-5 under 12 overs, Chittagong failed to capitalise on the situation as the hosts leaked runs and Mahmudullah, who started off slowly, opened up and carved an invaluable 45-ball 51 for his side.
Rony Talukdar did a decent job behind the wicket in place of Brendan Taylor but failed to get off the mark with the bat while Evin Lewis’ BPL debut lasted just three deliveries as Dilshan trapped him with a slider in the first over.
Instead of going for the kill, Tamim for some unknown reasons saved his key bowlers and looked to run through the overs with Enamul Haque Jr and Ziaur Rahman, which allowed Barisal to crawl back in the game and eventually nail their third win of the campaign.
Mehedi Maruf, who replaced Shahriar Nafees in the opening slot, initiated the early progress by adding 40 runs with Mahmudullah for the fourth wicket. After hitting two exquisite sixes off Enamul Jr and Chigumbura, Maruf’s 28-run cameo ended when Asif took a brilliant diving catch at deep backward square-leg off Ziaur’s off-cutter.
Later, Sri Lankan Seekkuge Prasanna dented Chittagong further with a whirlpool 36 that included four sixes before Chigumbura was introduced again in the penultimate over where he gave away 22 runs before picking the consolation wicket of Mahmudullah.
Chigumbura gave away 38 runs from his two overs as Cooper took full toll of the ordinary bowler and struck two sixes along with a four to slowly push Chittagong out of the contest.
