Vikings take down Titans, posting record 214
Chittagong Vikings beat Khulna Titans by 26 runs at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium.
Batting first, the Vikings posted 214/4, the highest score of this year’s Bangladesh Premier League (BPL).
This was also the overall second highest total in the history of BPL after Dhaka Gladiators' 217 for 4 against Rangpur Riders at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in 2013, according to news agency UNB.
Yasir Ali and Mushfiqur Rahim hit fifties for the Vikings and Dasun Shanaka struck 42 off 17 deliveries.
In the first match of the day, Sylhet Sixers posted 194 runs for four wickets in the first innings which was the highest team total of the season before Rangpur Rider passed that scoring 195 for six wickets. In the third innings in succession, fans have witnessed a run fest in BPL, UNB says.
Khulta Titans won the toss in the match and decided to bowl first. Chittagong managed an ordinary start as they lost the first wicket on 17. Shariful Islam trapped Cameron Delport for 13 runs.
In the second wicket stand, Mohammad Shahzad and Yasir Ali put 39 runs on the board. Shahzad was rolling over the Titans bowler but the right-handed Afghan star failed to continue his golden innings as he fell for 33 off 17 balls. Taijul Islam trapped him to the wicketkeeper, UNB adds.
In the third wicket partnership, Yasir Ali and Mushfiqur Rahim added 83 runs. Along the way, Yasir hit his first fifty of this edition of BPL. He fell for 54 off 36 in the 15th over bowled by David Wiese.
Mushfiqur was dismissed by the same bowler- David Wiese- in the 18th over, but Chittagong were keen to add more runs with the help of Dasun Shanaka. The Sri Lankan recruit of the Vikings crushed the Titans scoring 42 off 17 delivers with three fours and four sixes to his credit.
The Vikings added 23 runs from the last over bowled by Subashis Roy as Shanaka hit four fours and one six. In the last five overs, the Vikings managed as many as 72 runs. And finally, they scored 214 which is the highest team total of the season and second highest total in the history of BPL's all seasons.
David Wiese took two wickets for Khulna, and Shariful Islam and Taijul Islam shared two wickets between them.
In reply, the in-form duo Paul Stirling (0) and Junaid Siddique (12) departed early. Skipper Mahmudullah gave some hope as he scored 50 off just 26 balls. But there was no support from the other end and wickets kept falling, taking the Titans to 188/8.