If they don’t lose badly to Comilla in the first match of the day and Khulna Tigers don’t win very well against Sylhet Strikers in the next match, the playoffs are guaranteed. Before entering the field today, Barisal’s playoff calculation was like this. But Tamim Iqbal’s team didn’t let the matter go to this stalemate in the equation.
They confirmed the last four by defeating Comilla Victorians by 6 wickets at Mirpur Sherebangla Stadium today. Khulna, who won the first 4 matches of the tournament, have been eliminated from the first round of this year’s BPL before coming to the field to equalize in this victory of Barisal.
Barisal captain Tamim won the toss and sent Comilla into bat in an important match to secure a place in the play-offs. Barisal’s bowlers pushed Comilla on the backfoot in the first half of the match, proving the captain’s decision correct. They did not allow Comilla to score more than 140 runs for 8 wickets in 20 overs. In response, Barisal reached the goal of winning by losing 4 wickets with 2 balls in hand.
In the run chase, Barisal reached the target mainly on Tamim Iqbal’s 48-ball 66-run innings. Tamim hit 3 sixes along with 6 fours in his innings. Kyle Myers scored the second highest run for Barisal. He hit 1 four and 2 sixes in his 25-ball innings.
Earlier, desperate to win, Barisal captain Tamim brought four bowlers into the attack in the first four overs of the innings. He got success in the fourth over. West Indies pacer Obed McCoy returned compatriot Sunil Narine with the last ball of his first over. In the seventh over of the innings, left-arm spinner Taijul Islam returned Liton Das with the second ball. Taijul got a wicket in his next over as well. Comilla scored 40 runs for 3 wickets in 8.1 overs.
From here Comilla tried to turn around with the batting of Moeen Ali and Tawhid Hriday. But the pair of 36 runs off 30 balls was broken by McCoy’s 25 runs when Hridoy got out. After that there was no pair worth mentioning in Comilla’s innings. However, the fact that they were able to give Barisal a target of 141 runs was mainly due to Zaker Ali’s contribution. Batting at number seven, Zaker scored an unbeaten 38 off 16 balls with 2 fours and 4 sixes. Basically this innings gave Comilla the collection to fight.
Taijul took maximum 3 wickets with 20 runs by bowling 3 overs for Barisal. Mohammad Saifuddin and McCoy took 2 wickets each.
Rangpur Riders and Comilla Victorians will face each other in the qualifier and Chittagong Challengers and Fortune Barisal will face each other in the eliminator.
Short score
Comilla: 140/8 in 20 overs (Nrain 16, Lytton 12, Hriday 25, Mahidul 1, Moeen 23, Russell 14, Zaker 38, Ford 0, Enamul 3, Tanveer 0; Meyers 3-0-17-0, Saifuddin 4-0-16-2, Javed 4-0-32-1, McCoy 4-0-40-2, Taijul 3-0-20-3, Miraj 2-0-13-0).
Barisal: 141/4 in 19.4 overs (Tamim 66, Shehzad 1, Myers 25, Mushfiq 17, Mahmudullah 12, Soumya 6; Ford 3-0-27-0, Enamul 4-0-22-1, Narine 4 -0-18-0, Moeen 1-0-13-0, Russell 4-0-39-1, Mushfiq 3.4-19-2).
Result: Barisal won by 6 wickets.
Man of the Match: Tamim Iqbal (Barisal).