|| CF Correspondent ||

Unified effort put Chittagong Vikings on top after the end of the second phase in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League at Dhaka on Wednesday.

Mushfiqur Rahim unbeaten half-century and Mosaddek Hossain valuable  off 26) forged a match-winning 89-run alliance as Chittagong Vikings extended their dream run in BPL 2019, hunting down Rajshahi Kings' total of 157 with two balls to spare for their sixth win from seven games.

BPL will resume at Chittagong from January 25 where the host are expected to exploit the home advantage as they are gaining from strength to strength with passing days,

Captain Rahim helped stabilize the chase against Kinsgs after an early wobble threatened to veer his team of course, He found the ideal foil in Mosaddek who took up the hitting responsibilities to take the chase over the line.

If the first two phase of tournament Vikings got over the line on quite a few occasions with relatively low-budget squad compared to some of their opponents who are having a squad with some of the leading T 20 stars of the world.

South African all-rounder Robbie Frylinck looked to be the trump card for Vikings as he single handedly won games for them on quite a few occasion and looked to be one of the major star in the tournament.

‘’Cricket is not played on pen and paper. We might not be a very strong side on it but we are doing well because everyone is backing everyone in the team,’’ Frylinck told reporters.

Vikings never looked to be a serious threat to other title aspirants Dhaka Dynamites, Rangpur Riders or Comilla Victorians compared to the strength of respective franchises after the squad was formed post player’s auction.

It was never surprising as Vikings initially have decided not to take part in the upcoming edition of the tournament and only changed their decision after efforts were taken by the BPL officials to convince and bring the franchise on-board once again after they mailed to the BPL governing council citing their unavailability on September 30.  

The franchise's decision to make a sudden exit came to light when they decided not to send the list of players they want to retain for the ongoing edition of BPL. The last date of retention for the tournament ended on September 30.

The owner altered the decision and after returning back from abroad according team insiders he was never looked convinced top spends big bucks considering it went in vain the earlier two editions.

They managed to get hold of their skipper Mushfiqur Rahim after he was allocated to the Vikings for the upcoming edition of the BPL just few minutes before the draft process kicked off on a rather peculiar note on October 28.

The BPL governing council provided a players list on Saturday with Mushfiqur slotted in the A+ category (Tk 40 to 75 lakh) for the draft. Rajshahi Kings had previously opted against retaining the star keeper-batsman. Prior to the allocation, the Vikings were the only franchise without an A+ category player in their ranks.