Naseem four-for blows away Dhaka

Comilla Victorians’ newest recruit Naseem Shah had a dream debut for the franchise as he claimed a four-wicket haul to help ensure a dominant 60-run victory against Dhaka Dominators in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) 2023 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka on Monday.

Naseem finished with 4-12 in his four overs to restrict Dhaka to 104-9 in 20 overs.

The Pakistani pacer, who was initially supposed to play for Khulna Tigers but was later signed up by Comilla right before his arrival to Bangladesh, dismissed Mizanur Rahman (five), Mohammad Mithun (three), Muktar Ali (nine) and Amir Hamza (0).

Dhaka never looked in contention of chasing down the challenging target, with Usman Ghani top scoring with a sluggish 33 off 34 balls.

Earlier, Comilla posted 164-6 thanks to Jaker Ali’s unbeaten 20 off 10 balls following a 32 and 30-run contribution from Johnson Charles and Khushdil Shah respectively.

Dhaka skipper Nasir Hossain continued his good run with the ball, finishing with 2-19 in three overs.

Dhaka sent Comilla to bat and put them under pressure early on. Pacer Al-Amin Hossain bowled a wicket maiden as Comilla were reduced to 9-1 after four overs.

But Comilla recovered from the early slump thanks to Charles and Khushdil. Jaker then hit a four and a six in the final over against Taskin Ahmed to end the Comilla innings on a high.

This was Dhaka’s sixth defeat in seven matches. The team from the capital now has to win all of their remaining five matches in the group phase to keep their qualification hopes alive.

Defending champions Comilla, on the other hand, have jumped up to the third position in the seven-team table with their fourth win in seven games.