Burners win thriller
Mahmudullah Riyad excelled after Brendan Taylor's stroke-filled half-century but their effort was not good enough to the make the local fans happy as Chittagong Kings suffered a six-run defeat to Barisal Burners at the MA Aziz Stadium last night.
Last year's runners-up Barisal avenged their 21-run defeat to Chittagong at Khulna and upgraded their position with their second win while the second successive defeat in front of a cheering home crowd ensured Chittagong's place at bottom of the points table.
In chase of a 183-run winning target, Kings were in a good position through scintillating batting from Zimbabwean Taylor, who smashed five fours and two sixes during his 42-ball 51. Left-arm spinner Elias Sunny however suddenly turned the tide in favour of Barisal Burners, taking the wickets of Taylor and Ryan ten Doeschate before Chittagong skipper Riyad revived hopes by hitting boundaries all over the park.
Kings needed 61 runs from the last five overs with Riyad and Aftab Ahmed at the crease. Fireworks were exploding from Riyad's end but still the pressure mounted as the once-brilliant stroke-maker and local boy Aftab, who was playing in front of such a big crowd after a long break, even struggled to get bat on ball. Aftab was finally trapped in front by Pakistani Azhar Mahmood, but the 12-ball 9 ultimately proved costly for his team.
Riyad fell victim of a run-out in the penultimate over to dash the last hope.
Earlier, Barisal Burners batted well to put up a challenging total. Sabbir (40) and Mahmood (35) made the bulk of the contribution to the Barisal score.
SCORES IN BRIEF
BARISAL BURNERS: 182 for 5 (Hodge 21, Sabbir 40, Azhar 35, Mustard 23, Kapali 29 not out, Kabir 10 not out, extras 19; Rubel 1-24, Tait 1-37, Cooper 2-27).
CHITTAGONG KINGS: 176-6 (Naeem 14, Taylor 51, Doeschate 24, Riyad 45, Cooper 14 not out, extras 9; Azhar 2-36, Sunny 3-24).
Result: Barisal Burners won by six runs.
Player-of-the-match: Azhar Mahmood.
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