|| CF Correspondent ||

The home advantage appeared to turn out to be home-pressure for Chittagong Vikings who all of a sudden forgot how to win a match. Their latest thrashing came at the hands of Comilla Victorians after an awful seven-wicket defeat on Tuesday, making it their third straight defeat in Bangladesh Premier League (BPL).

Nevertheless Chittagong maintained a spot in the top four with 12 points while Comilla again went atop with 14 points but the top spot of BPL turned out such a musical chair that it could be occupied by Rangpur Riders again had they win the match against Rajshahi Kings in the evening fixture.

Ever since the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury began hosting the BPL matches of this season, it produced runs in abundance in every match with two teams positing largest two scores of tournament’s history. However for the first time, on the penultimate day of the Chittagong phase of BPL, the tournament saw a low score and ironically home side was the part of it, transpiring the fact how vulnerable they remain at their home ground.

In the rain-affected day that reduced the match to a 19-over affair, Chittagong, opting to bat first were restricted to 116 for eight. There was no demons in the wicket which was later proved by the Comilla Victorians batsmen who happily hunted down the target in 16.4 overs with opener Tamim Iqbal leading the way, making 51 ball-54 not out.

In what was his second fifty in an otherwise a dull tournament for him, Tamim smote four boundaries and two sixes. Comilla lost three wickets but the victory looked guaranteed at the outset.

Tamim’s fellow opener Anamul Haque Bijoy was out for eight to leave the side 26 for one. If Chittagong got any glimmer of hope by early wicket, it was quickly disappeared with Shamsur Rahman Shuvo adding 65 runs with Tamim for the second wicket stand to make it one-way traffic. Shuvo was more attacking than Tamim, smashing a 22 ball-36 three fours and two sixes before he chipped straight to Sikandar Raza at long-on.

The deal was sealed almost but captain Imrul Kayes threw away his wicket for 8 to squander the chance of completing the match of his own. Meantime Tamim bided his time to get him set and finally flicked Abu Jayed for a boundary to bring up a characteristic fifty off 49 balls, maintaining a usual 100 strike rate.

But Thisara Perera perhaps knew the value of the net-run-rate as he injected urgency to hasten the victory.

Chittagong’s batting was interrupted by a spell of rain that stopped match for 20 minutes. And when they were back at the game, they lost two wickets for four runs and never could regroup them.