Mash even surprised himself
As cool as a cucumber and as sharp as a knife, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza showed his more established batsmen how it's done. Never mind that the Comilla Victorians were struggling at 54 for 3 against Chittagong Vikings when he arrived at the crease, never mind that he had never scored a half-century in a T20 format of the game; all that Mashrafe put is his attacking instinct and sheer willpower into perspective.
Yesterday's win in a BPL game at Mirpur meant a lot to the Bangladesh skipper, which was evident from the way he celebrated.
As soon as he glided Mohammad Amir to the third-man for a boundary, he threw his bat in the air and sprinted towards the dressing room. It was a half-century that he had thoroughly enjoyed.
Such was the intensity of the celebrations that Mashrafe had actually forgotten to take his bat off the field; a calm-looking Marlon Samuels had to complete that job later on.
“Even when that ball went for a four I couldn't really believe that we had won it. I didn't really expect to score a 50 when I came into bat. I guess that's why I was very excited. I never really finished an innings for a team before so I enjoyed it quite a bit,” Mashrafe later told reporters while reflecting on his emotional victory celebration.
“I have been practicing my batting a lot more than before and credit for that goes to coach Chandika Hathurusingha. He always ensures that I get batting practice like the other batters because we play with seven batsmen in the national team now,” added the skipper.
A brilliant 123-run stand between Samuels and Mashrafe led the Comilla Victorians to a seven-wicket win over Tamim Iqbal's Chittagong Vikings. The score-line may suggest that Comilla had it easy, but that wasn't the case.
Chasing 177, Comilla lost Liton Das and Imrul Kayes with just 16 runs on the board. Shuvagata Hom had come in next, looked good with two sixes and four fours but eventually perished in the eighth over for a 16-ball 30. With 120 runs required of the last 12 overs, Mashrafe decided to promote himself. The idea of course was to score some quick runs since they didn't really have too many hitters in the side and the plan worked like a gem.
The skipper came in and together with Samuels started stitching a mature partnership. While they did concentrate on rotating the strike, they ensured to smack a boundary in each over.
The highlight of the chase came in the 14th over when Saeed Ajmal was torn apart for 20 runs. It included a six off Mashrafe and a four off Samuels. Since then the pair looked back.
Chittagong however, didn't make things too easy for them either, dropping a number of catches. Mashrafe was dropped off Shafiul Islam in the 15th over while Samuels got a life in the 18th.
The batsmen made the most of the reprieves and eventually required just 12 of the last two overs. Samuels and Mashrafe smacked Amir for a four each and finished the game with seven balls in hand.
While Samuels finished on unbeaten 52-ball 69, Mashrafe hammered a 32-ball 56.
Earlier, Chittagong, playing their third match in as many days, continued their good run with the bat. This time though there weren't any half-centuries and it took a team effort from the Vikings to post 176. While the top order gave them a good start, a brilliant 16-ball 39 from Ziaur Rahman towards the end gave them a good finish. Ziaur smacked three sixes and two fours in his 24-ball 39.
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