Comilla Victorians 120 for 1 (Buttler 50*, Imrul 44*) beat Rajshahi Kings 115 for 7 (Simmons 40*, Nabi 3-15) by nine wickets
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Comilla Victorians crushed Rajshahi Kings by nine wickets after Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan starred with the ball, taking four wickets collectively as Rajshahi lurched to their third loss in four games.
Sent to bat, Rajshahi's innings hardly put up a decent partnership. They succumbed to the deadly Afghan combination - Rashid's subtle variations and Nabi's accuracy- as they made only 115 for 7 in 20 overs. Nabi finished with 3 for 15 while Rashid gave away just seven runs in four overs for his wicket.
Liton Das gave Comilla a brisk start before Imrul Kayes and Jos Buttler finished off the chase with their unbroken 97-run second-wicket stand, taking Cmilla home with 29 balls to spare.
The only good part
Before he was stretchered off, Simmons was the only Rajshahi batsman to give Comilla something to think about. Off Nabi, he slammed a straight six before hitting Arafat Sunny for three consecutive fours in the sixth over. But off the next ball, he completed a single while clutching his hamstring and then went down. His 40 came off 23 balls with the solitary six and six fours. With his departure, Rajshahi were effectively 48 for three in the sixth over, having already lost Mominul Haque and Rony Talukdar in the fourth and fifth over respectively.
Afghans rule Mirpur
Mominul was Nabi's first wicket before Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Nihaduzzaman also fell to his accurate offspin. Credit for Miraz's wicket was shared with Marlon Samuels too, who leaped to his right at backward point to hold on to catch.
Rashid took the key wicket of Mushfiqur Rahim in the ninth over. Rashid had worked over Mushfiqur for six deliveries before an attempted flick took the top edge, and was easily caught at extra cover. Rashid also had a hand in the removal of Malcolm Waller in the 11th over when the Zimbabwean lost his concentration momentarily during an lbw appeal and took off for a single assuming the ball had gone past the square. Liton quickly whipped off the bails, getting him run-out.
Liton goes sweeping
Farhad Reza was subjected to four sweeps by Liton before he was bowled off the last ball of an over while attempting a punch over the infield. The first of those sweeps that connected, somewhat, went for a six over the wicketkeeper before the next one went off a glove through the same region. Off the fifth ball Liton connected properly with the sweep against an outswinger and it sailed over the square-leg boundary for a second six in the over. Despite conceding 22 runs in the over, Farhad had the last laugh when he snuck a slower ball in and beat the bat to find middle and leg.
Chasing it down unflappably
Like he did with Samuels in Comilla's last match, Kayes settled down to take his side closer to the chase. This time, Buttler was with him. Buttler made an unbeaten 50 off 39 balls with four boundaries and two sixes while Imrul was not out on 44 off 41 balls, finishing the chase with a pulled six off Malcolm Waller.
