Mediocre performances from locals bring Vikings down

Chittagong Vikings had a difficult season in BPL 2017 as they won only thrice in 12 matches. The Vikings never really played as a team for the majority of the games, especially their bowling line-up was not upto the mark at all, which eventually cost them heavily. Chittagong made some surprising choices with their team set-up as they picked up the veteran Pakistani Misbah-ul Haq as their captain for BPL 5. Soumya Sarkar was their icon player in the money-spinning tournament and a lot was expected from the left-hander, who has been struggling for runs for a long time now. Misbah played four matches at the beginning but failed to lift his batting in accordance with the T20 format as the experienced campaigner scored 83 runs with a strike rate of just 91. In Chittagong’s fifth game, Misbah was dropped from the playing XI and Luke Ronchi was named as captain instead. But the fortunes did not improve for the Vikings at all later in the cash-rich competition, as they lost matches regularly.

@laggies74 telling me he wants to bowl the next over Am saying run back to long on quickly ?? Made great friends and memories that will last a long time @ronchi04 @rayad51 @AnamulOfficial @Taskin_Official @lreece17 pic.twitter.com/2zDZuh6qoM

— Sikandar Raza (@SRazaB24) December 6, 2017

Bangladesh pace bowling spearhead Taskin Ahmed was the main strike bowler for Chittagong and the right-arm fast bowler failed to produce clinical performances. Taskin was the highest wicket taker for the Vikings with 14 scalps but often conceded many runs, which proved to be costly. Taskin failed to defend 14 runs against Rangpur Riders in front of their home crowd in Chittagong, conceding a last ball sixer to lose the game. The other national team paceman Subashish Roy was also unimpressive with the ball as he played only five games and bagged picked four wickets. He was in hot water, especially on social media when he got involved in a bust up with fan favourite and Rangpur captain Mashrafe bin Mortaza in the Sylhet phase of the tournament. As far as local batsmen are concerned, Anamul Haque had a decent tournament as he scored at an average of 29.42 in eight innings.

Thanks @CtgVikings and @OfficialBPL for the opportunity Thanks to people of Bangladesh for the love and support Most importantly thanks to the players and management for wonderful memories #BPL2017 pic.twitter.com/wZ1iHI356C

— Sikandar Raza (@SRazaB24) December 6, 2017

Impressive performersLuke Ronchi (Overseas)Ronchi was the best player for the Vikings in the tournament as he regularly gave good starts at the top of the batting order. The right-hander scored 321 runs at an average of 29.18 and a strike rate of almost 170. The wicketkeeper-batsman also smashed 33 fours and 21 sixes in his 12 innings but his efforts were not enough for the Vikings at the end.Sikandar Raza (Overseas)Zimbabwean batsman Sikandar Raza also played well in the middle-order. The right-hander read the Bangladesh wickets in Sylhet, Dhaka and Chittagong pretty well and scored some useful runs. He scored 278 runs in 10 innings at an impressive average of 39.71 and more than useful strike rate of 153.59.Unimpressive performersSoumya Sarkar (Local)The southpaw has been struggling for form for quite some time now, across all formats for the Tigers. He had a great chance to regain his confidence and scoring touch but Soumya failed miserably in BPL 5. The icon player for Chittagong scored only 169 runs in 11 innings at an average of 15.36. No fifty-run innings and only 13 fours and five sixes in 11 innings sums up his poor form.Tanbir Hayder (Local)A leg-spinner is really important in the context of a T20 game as such kind of slow bowler is always considered as a wicket-taking option for captains in the shortest format. Tanbir played 10 matches and managed to pick only three wickets. Although he bowled less compared to the others (23.1 overs in 10 innings) his three wickets as a wicket-taking bowler was not a happy sight from a captain’s point of view.