Dhaka move clear of chasing pack

An all-round team performance helped the Dhaka Dynamites overcome a brilliant 74 from Tamim Iqbal and beat the Chittagong Vikings by six wickets at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday. The win helped them seal the top spot of the league with one more game to go.

Batting first, the Vikings were restricted to 134 and in reply, Dhaka scampered home with 1.4 overs remaining.

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Chasing 135, Dhaka were in early trouble when they lost their key opener Mehedi Maruf in the third over. He was trapped in front by Mohammad Nabi. That pressure was too much to take and they lost two more wickets and by the ninth over were struggling at 56 for three. 

Kumar Sangakkara, who was looking to anchor the innings from one end, was run out brilliantly from the deep by Zakir Hossain for a 35-ball 35 and that brought the Dynamites to 84 for four in 13 overs.

With 51 runs required off 42 balls, Dhaka sent in their trump card Andre Russell and that is what transformed the game.

He began by lofting Imran Khan for a six over long-off in the 15th over and then followed that up by smashing Saqlain Sajib for a six over deep midwicket in the 16th.

Alauddin Babu joined in the fun and pulled Imran for a six over midwicket in the 17th over and brought the equation down to just 17 required from the last 18 balls.

That was a target that the duo needed just eight balls to reach. While Russell finished on 31 runs from 18 balls, Babu remained unbeaten on a 27-ball 33.

On the very day that the Chittagong Vikings needed their heavy batting armoury to fire, they failed. Their innings can be observed based on two perspectives. There was Tamim Iqbal's brilliant 59-ball 74 and then there were the rest of the batters who kept throwing their wickets away.

The dismal performance led to them scoring a below-par 134, 74 off which were scored by Tamim, who hit three sixes and six fours.

Having asked Chittagong to bat first, the Dhaka Dynamites gained the early advantage when they dismissed Chris Gayle in the fourth over. The big man was kept quiet for some time and he tried to release the pressure by smashing Russell for a boundary. Instead, all he did was edge a simple catch towards Shakib Al Hasan at cover.

Two more wickets fell quickly after Gayle and after eight overs Chittagong were struggling at 33 for three. Slowly but steadily Tamim, along with Shoaib Malik, started reviving Chittagong.

The partnership did not yield any boundaries in the first three overs and as a result Chittagong were poised at 45 for three after 10.

However, once Tamim got set he unleashed some of his best -looking drives. In the 14th over he came down the track and hit Russell for a six over long on. He followed that with a flick over midwicket for a four. He reached his half-century in that over off 46 balls.

In the next over he went better. He first dismissed Dwayne Bravo for a sweetly timed six over extra cover. He followed that up with one straight down the ground for another six.

However, the 86-run partnership and the scoring rate lost steam once Malik was caught at long on in the 17th over. Tamim was dismissed in the next ball after his effort to clear the rope ended up in the hands of the fielder at deep midwicket.

Wickets fell in clumps and Chittagong failed to make the most of the slog overs. Bravo once again was Dhaka's key wicket-taker with three crucial wickets for just 27 runs.