BPL 2015 Match#28 Barisal Bulls Vs Chittagong Vikings played at SBNCS Dhaka on 9 December 2015
Barisal Bulls 141/2 (Chris Gayle 92*) beat Chittagong Vikings 135/7 (Anamul Haque 28, T Dilshan 28, Umar Akmal 25, KK Cooper 2/24, Mohammad Sami 2/31) by 6 Wickets.
Player of the Match: Chris Gayle (Barisal Bulls)
DHAKA: Gayle’s hailstorm is always on the card whenever he appears in any shorter version of the game. The gladiator has scored century in his very first appearance of the last two versions of Bangladesh Premier League (BPL).
His fans, however, had to wait till the third match this time to see their idol come to his own. When Gayle is in his free striking mood nothing seems beyond his reach. His sparkling unbeaten 92 in only 47 deliveries, featured with six 4’s and nine huge characteristic strikes over across consolidated Bulls position among the qualifiers for the semifinal of BPL 2015.
Chittagong Vikings with a very strong team unfortunately was the first team getting knocked out from stage one of the tournament.
Batting first, Vikings without regular captain Tamim Iqbal struggled all the way reaching 135/7 in allotted overs. Gayle’s solo silkened the path of Bulls in overhauling the target with 30 balls to spare. Unfortunately the target was not enough for Gayle fans witnessing another Century of their idol. Also the decision of not playing Mohammad Amir deprived fans of witnessing an Amir-Gayle bout at the top.
Wicket was much better on Wednesday yet keeping up with the recent tradition Mahmudullah opted to field after winning the toss. The going was good for the Vikings with Anamul (28) opening the innings with Dilshan (28) in the absence of Tamim. They scored 52 runs in the power play. But, neither could carry on after getting start.
Once they were removed Bulls kept on taking wickets at regular interval. Other than Umar Akmal’s (25) feeble resistance Vikings looked pretty ordinary. Mohammad Sami (2/31), Al-Amin Hossain (1/31) and KK Cooper (2/24) all bowled exceedingly well to restrict Vikings.
A target of 136 on the easy paced wicket was perhaps at least 30 runs too less. Moreover, when a man of Gayle’s caliber appears with his sword it becomes bread and butter. He announced before arrival for BPL 2105 to book a century in his name. He was on his way. But the destination was not far enough. Yet he played a highly entertaining innings of 92 in 47 deliveries featured with nine towering sixes. This tournament is his first after long layoff from back surgery. Bulls are in the semifinals. They have another inconsequential match of the first round and then play off. The biggest advertisement of hurricane hitting is here again to entrain his adoring fans.
We were greatly surprised from abysmal performance of a very strong Chittagong Vikings team in the third edition of BPL. They won only two matches out of 10. With Amir, Taskin and Shafiul Vikings had very potent bowling attack. Tamim and Dilshan were the most devastating opening pair. But the spine less batting and poor fielding let them down in most of the matches. Tamim also failed to squeeze the best out of his charge. Perhaps, they did not have the horses for the courses. Losing most of the games played in their backyard in Chittagong was their major setback.
Barisal Bulls were in prolific form all through. Even without Gayle they won five of their first six matches. Incidentally, with Gayle not firing they lost the last two matches and had the ignominy of getting all out 58 in one match. Gayle was back in his fiery best on Wednesday and Bulls are back in winning groove. Mahmudullah marshaled his resources very professionally. His bowlers always bowled within themselves and batsmen delivered as and when required. Bulls are well prepared for the finals.
BDST: 0923 HRS, DEC 10, 2015
SR
