Chittagong Vikings won by 6 wickets against Rajshahi Kings at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) on Wednesday.
The Vikings have this Mushfiqur-Mosaddek to thank for finding themselves on the right side of things here. At one stage after losing two quick wickets, when Shahzad too looked out of touch, 158 seemed distant.
But these two brought all their experience into play here, with Mushfiqur seemingly happy to play the anchor's role first up before cutting loose to give an aggressive Mosaddek company. It was the 16th over where they smashed Kamrul Islam for three boundaries that changed the scales in their favour, and they then made sure they stayed brutal in seizing the momentum, Crickbuzz reports.
Mushfiqur Rahim, CV skipper, said, "At the end of the day the team winning is the most important thing. Having had a start, I wanted to stay till the end to finish the game. We were really good in the first ten overs with the ball but lost the plot in the last ten. Mosaddek will also get a lot of confidence with an innings like this and will help him for the rest of the BPL. It is difficult to score against their bowlers in the death; but we knew that one good shot would win us the game. Mosaddek was calm and collected and he picked out the right ball and finished it off."
Mehidy Hasan, RK skipper, said, "I thought we had a good total, but our bowlers couldn't execute their plans well. We know that Chittagong have had a few back-to-back wins, but our bowlers will look to come back strongly. All our boys batted well, Laurie, RTD and Jonker got quick runs for us."
UNB adds: Vikings rose to the top with 12 points in seven matches, toppling Dhaka Dynamites and Comilla Victorians, who have 10 points each from eight matches.
Chasing 157, Vikings reached the target with two balls to play (159 for 4 in 19.4 overs), thanks to an unbeaten 88-run partnership in the fifth wicket stand by skipper Mushfiqur and Mosaddek Hossain.
Along the process, Mushfiqur struck his third fifty in four matches. He was adjudged the man of the match. The skipper scored 64 off 46 balls, hitting six fours and two sixes.
Mosaddek contributed an unbeaten 43 runs off 26 balls with four fours and two sixes.
Vikings lost wickets at regular intervals. Left-arm spinner Arafat Sunny took three of the four wickets and Mehidy Hasan Miraz bagged the other one.
Cameron Delport and Yasir Ali failed to touch a double-digit score while Afghan star Mohammad Shahzad scored 25. Another Afghan Najibullah Zadran fell for 23 off 19 balls.
In the first innings, Kings posted 157/5. Laurie Evans struck 74 - their best individual score in the match.
Kings faltered after being sent to bat first, losing two wickets before posting 10 runs. Soumya Sarkar walked back to the pavilion after scoring three. He was dismissed by Robbie Frylinck.
Khaled Ahmed took the wicket of Marshall Ayub with a brilliant caught-and-bowled effort.
Kings turned around with Evans and Ryan ten Doeschante's 56-run third wicket stand. But they lost their third and fourth wickets in a span of 10 runs.
Doeschate was dismissed by Abu Jayed for 28 off 20 balls and wicketkeeper-batsman Zakir Hasan (5 off 7 balls) was trapped by Sunzamul Islam.
Evans, who struck a hundred in the last match, fell at 74 off 56 balls with eight fours and two sixes. Mushfiqur took a great catch off Khaled to dismiss Evans. In the sixth wicket stand, Christiaan Jonker and Mehedy Hasan added 36 runs off 13 balls.
Khaled took two wickets for Vikings while Frylinck, Sunzamul and Jayed bagged one each.
Vikings will play their next match on January 25 against defending champions Rangpur Riders while Kings will take on Sylhet Sixers on the same day. Both matches will be played at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, Chattogram.
