Crowd storms the gate ahead of final

The Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) final between Comilla Victorians and Dhaka Dynamites saw the 25,000-plus capacity Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur packed to the rafters as enthusiastic fans from all over flocked to watch the highly anticipated encounter yesterday.

So much so was the crowd's enthusiasm that, ahead of the scheduled 7:00pm start time, supporters who were unable to get tickets caused enough of a commotion for law enforcers to have to intervene.

There were no tickets available at the Bangladesh Cricket Board's (BCB's) designated booths, leaving the crowd to vent their frustrations by storming the stadium's gate no.2 just four to five hours before the game.

After a portion of the crowd broke into the stadium, a combined effort from Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and the Police brought the situation under control.

On a lighter note, there did not seem to be any 'sides' among the fans who were lucky enough to get tickets. When Comilla Victorians opener Tamim Iqbal -- featuring in his first BPL final for any team --completed his century, the capacity crowd leapt to their feet, cheering with all their might.

The rest of the game was more or less similar regardless of allegiance as fans cheered on their cricketing heroes and proved that they were only there to witness what was an excellent match between two fierce sides.