Victorians bury Vikings

Chittagong Vikings' journey at home ended in the worst possible manner as they suffered an agonizing five-wicket defeat to the Comilla Victorians yesterday.

Firstly their chances of making it to the last four received a huge dent following the loss. And secondly, they will anxiously be waiting to know if the Bangladesh Premier League's technical committee will take any action against their top player Tillakaratne Dilshan, who seemingly tried to obstruct Imrul Kayes' path as the left-hander attempted to take a run.

Replays showed Dilshan coming in Kayes's path after which the players collided and fell on the ground. In the meantime Kayes' partner Ahmed Shehzad had already run the distance and arrived at the batsman's crease. With no one at the runners end, Chittagong completed the run-out. The incident took place in the fourth ball of the second over.

However, as the events transpired, the umpires eventually decided that it was a deliberate attempt to obstruct the batsman. As a result, five penalty runs were awarded to the Comilla Victorians and that particular ball was deemed dead.

From there, the momentum seemed to shift towards the Victorians and Chittagong's body language deteriorated.

That particular over gave away 15 runs, which was a lot considering that the Chittagong had posted just 136 runs on the board.

Kayes and Shehzad shared a 52-run stand for the second wicket and laid a good foundation for the team.

Dilshan did eventually get Kayes caught behind in the tenth over. However, that brought the in-form Shoaib Malik to the crease. Together with his Pakistani colleague, the duo further consolidated Comilla's dominance with a 39-run partnership in five overs.

There was more drama in store though. Comilla suffered a mini-collapse once Shehzad departed in the 15th over for 37. After that, Mohammad Amir was brought back into the attack and he took the wickets of both Ashar Zaidi and Shuvagata Hom in the 17th over.

That meant that Comilla needed 24 runs off the last three overs with five wickets in hand.

Alok Kapali smacked Bilawal Bhatti for a four in the 18th over and brought the equation down to 16 from 12.

The penultimate over of the match saw Amir give away nine runs as Malik carved him for a boundary through point.

Comilla required just seven runs off the last over. An easy task was made easier after Bhatti bowled a beamer and gave away a free-hit. Eventually Comilla reached home with two balls remaining.

Earlier, Chittagong failed to make the most of the start provided to them by their openers and had to settle for a below-par score. Dilshan and Tamim Iqbal put on 51 runs in 7.2 overs and it seemed as though the hosts were headed for a big score. However, after Tamim's departure in the eighth over, the scenario began to change. Anamul Haque was run-out in the same over and suddenly the hosts found themselves at 54 for 2.

The middle-order, except for Umar Akmal, couldn't do much to stop the bleeding.

Had it not been for Akmal's unbeaten 49 off 34 deliveries, things would have been much worse for the hosts. He smacked four fours and two sixes towards the end to help his side past the 130-mark.