Comilla Victorians crown record fourth BPL title
Comilla Victorians celebrate with their BPL trophy, Cricfrenzy
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Comilla Victorians sealed the record fourth Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) title as the back to back champions beat Sylhet Strikers by seven wickets in the ninth edition of BPL final at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur Thursday.
Comilla have now won the silverware in the years of 2015, 2019, 2022 and 2023.
In the second over of the Comilla openers' 176-run chase, Litton Das and Sunil Narine combined to score 20 runs off Tanzim Hasan Sakib, giving the team more than enough momentum.
However, pacer Rubel Hossain gave Sylhet the crucial breakthrough of Narine in the subsequent over. Narine's 23-ball 57 at the top was essential in helping Comilla win the BPL the previous year.
Imrul Kayes, the skipper, soon followed suit and was fired by George Linde. The all-rounder from South Africa then slowed down the scoring rate, allowing only 11 runs in his first three overs.
After combining with Johnson Charles, Liton scored his fifty off 36 deliveries, and the two helped Comilla reach his century after 12 overs.
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The stylish Bangladeshi batter mistimed a pull shot off Rubel to become his second victim, ending Litton's innings right away with a well-timed catch at the deep by Najmul Hossain Shanto.
When Moeen Ali entered the field, he immediately got going, hitting a series of boundaries through the cover off right-arm fast bowler Sakib, who had a miserable night overall.
Comilla had the upper hand with seven wickets in hand and 60 needed off six overs. In the end, Charles (79 not out off 52 balls) destroyed the Sylhet bowlers and quickly put an end to the match with a barrage of sixes, keeping Moeen unbeaten on 25.
Earlier, Shanto and Mushfiqur Rahim led Sylhet Strikers to a commanding total as Sylhet franchise was eyeing to touch the trophy for the first time.
Shanto, who scored 64 runs off 45 balls in the important final, became the first Bangladeshi to score 500 runs in a BPL season. Before that, South African Rilee Rossouw scored 558 runs for Rangpur Riders in the 2018-19 season.
After choosing to bowl first, Comilla made headway as the captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza and in-form Towhid Hridoy both made 1 and 0 respectively before returning to the pavilion.
But Mushfiqur Rahim and Shanto, who scored the most runs in the current tournament, launched a counterattack to fend off Comilla's early lead.
Mushfiqur contributed unbeaten 74 off 48 balls that contained five fours and three sixes.
