Rizwan’s dramatic inclusion not enough to end Comilla’s losing streak

Flying in Mohammad Rizwan to Chattogram in a helicopter couldn’t help Comilla Victorians break their losing streak as they suffered a 12-run defeat to Fortune Barishal, their third straight defeat in the ninth Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) on Saturday.

Khushdil Shah hit an unbeaten 43 off 27 but could only take Comilla to 165-7.

Liton Das (32 off 26 balls), Mosaddek Hossain (27 off 19 balls) and skipper Imrul Kayes (28 off 15 balls) got starts but couldn’t extend their innings.

Earlier, Shakib Al Hasan’s unbeaten 81 off 45 balls took Barishal 177-6.

Comilla’s left-arm spinner Tanvir Islam claimed 4-33.

Earlier, the match at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium began in a somewhat dramatic manner, with Pakistani wicketkeeper-batsman Rizwan being flown in by his franchise on a helicopter from Dhaka with less than an hour to go before the match.

Rizwan took part in Pakistan’s home ODI series against New Zealand, which concluded on Friday. In less than a day after the series ended, Rizwan made his way to Dhaka on 10:20am on Saturday. He then boarded a private helicopter arranged by the Victorians, which landed in Chattogram at around 12:45pm, 45 minutes before the start of the match.

But after such a dramatic inclusion, Rizwan couldn’t deliver with the bat, scoring 18 off 11 balls.

Liton looked in great touch, hitting one four and three sixes. But his promising innings ended abruptly, courtesy of a brilliant direct hit from Karim Janat from the third-man region.

Comilla innings then failed to sustain any momentum as they kept losing wickets at regular tandem.

Four sixes from the bat of Khushdil took Comilla close to the target, but in the end, they couldn’t end their losing streak.

Earlier, sent to bat, Barishal got off to a decent start, thanks to Chaturanga de Silva’s quickfire 21 off 12 balls.

Shakib came to the middle after Chaturanga’s dismissal in the last ball of the powerplay.

The left-hander was first accompanied by Anamul Haque (20 off 20 balls) and then formed a 50-run stand off 38 balls with Ibrahim Zadran (27 off 20 balls) for the fourth wicket.

In the final overs, when Barishal would’ve hoped for their batsmen to fire from both ends, Shakib was smashing boundaries at one end and rotating the strike skillfully while wickets fell in regular succession at the other end.

In the end, Shakib’s innings and an unbeaten 10 off five balls from the bat of Karim Janat took Barishal to a competitive score at a batting paradise, which proved to be sufficient in the end.