Victorians thrash Titans

In a clash of the form teams of the Bangladesh Premier League, table-toppers Khulna Titans were handed a thrashing by the now second-placed Comilla Victorians, who won the match by nine wickets with as many as 6.1 overs to spare at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong yesterday.

Comilla Victorians now move above holders Dhaka Dynamites into second spot with their sixth win from eight matches.

It was an utter batting failure from Khulna Titans, who are still on top of the seven-team table on 13 points despite yesterday's chastening loss, as the Mahmudullah Riyad-led team were bowled out for a paltry 111, a failure that was made more embarrassing because of the batting-friendly wicket. Comilla skipper Tamim Iqbal made light work of the chase with a serene and untroubled 64 off 42 balls, an innings laced with 12 high-quality boundaries.

Against the run of play, Khulna extracted the wicket of Tamim's opening partner Liton Das when the wicketkeeper-batsman sliced a catch to midwicket in the eighth over after putting on 64 runs with his skipper. Tamim, who had plenty of support from his native Chittagong crowd that has been disappointed with the performance of the local team, reached his second half-century of BPL 2017 off his 30th ball with a down-the-wicket slap past bowler Kyle Abbott in the 10th over. After that, Imrul Kayes (22 not out) gave his captain company as Comilla cantered to the win.

Earlier, after Mahmudullah Riyad won the toss and elected to bat it was a dismal procession of Khulna batsmen. They were chopped down to two for eight and later five for 50 as Shoaib Malik and Al-Amin Hossain got among the wickets. With their bankable scorers like Mahmudullah, Rilee Roussow, Afif Hossain and Carlos Brathwaite not scoring, a top-heavy Khulna batting line-up seemed clueless. After Mahmudullah was fifth out, caught off Mohammad Saifuddin for 14, Brathwaite and Ariful Haque put on 21 runs but it was the big hitter's dismissal in the 11th over, caught at deep midwicket off Al-Amin, with the score on 61 that was the final nail in Khulna's coffin.

Ariful hit the team-highest 24, but it might have been more embarrassing for Khulna if not for a pair of 16s from lower order batsmen Abbott and Shafiul Islam. Malik and Al-Amin took three wickets apiece for Khulna.

SCORES IN BRIEF
KHULNA V COMILLA

KHULNA TITANS: 111 all out in 19.2 overs (Mahmudullah 14, Ariful 24, Brathwaite 13, Abbott 16, Shafiul 16; Malik 3-14, Al-Amin 3-20)
COMILLA VICTORIANS: 112 for 1 in 13.5 overs (Tamim 64 not out, Liton 21, Imrul 22 not out; Abbott 1-27)
Result: Comilla Victorians won by 9 wickets.
Player-of-the-match: Shoaib Malik.