Chasing 138 to win, Chittagong were in immediate trouble when icon player Tamim Iqbal, who returned after an absence of five games, was bowled by a Dwayne Smith Yorker in the second over. Nasir Jamshed was then picked up by Shakib Al Hasan after he hit the Khulna captain for a six over long-on in the third over. Two overs later, Jahurul Islam was caught by Nasir Hossain off the bowling of Abdur Razzak. At 32 for three after six overs, it was always going to be a tough climb for the port city side who had plenty of support at the Zahur Ahmed Choudhury Stadium.

 

While wickets tumbled at the other end, Jason Roy was batting beautifully to reach 30 off 24 balls with two fours and as many sixes when disaster struck. Chittagong skipper Mahmudullah Riyad turned down a call for a second run in the ninth over, but Roy was already three-fourths of the way down the pitch and had no chance of beating the throw to the striker’s end. It was Roy’s call and he fumed off the field.

 

Thereafter there was no hope for Chittagong as Dwayne Bravo was caught and bowled by Razzak, before leg-spinner Marshall Ayub dispatched three in one over, the thirteenth of the innings. Mahmudullah hit one straight to Shakib at cover off the first ball, Ziaur Rahman was bowled off the fourth and Kevon Cooper was caught off the sixth, making an unlikely hero of Ayub and leaving Chittagong in dire straits at 66 for eight. Ayub added the wicket of Muttiah Muralitharan in his next over to give Nasir his third catch of the match and end up with excellent figures of 4 for 20 off four overs. Arafat Sunny and Enamul Haque Jnr tried to save face, adding nineteen runs for the tenth over, but it was all over when Enamul was bowled off the first ball of the eighteenth over by Smith.  

 

Earlier, Khulna Royal Bengals rode on a late burst from man-of-the-match Nasir and Andre Russell to post a competitive 137 for 6. They had to overcome a brilliant bowling display from left-arm spinner Enamul, who bowled economically and extracted three crucial wickets.

 

Put in to bat first, Khulna were made to toil hard by disciplined bowing from the Chittagong bowlers. Only fifteen runs came off the first three overs bowled by skipper Mahmudullah, Bravo and Sunny. When Shivnarine Chanderpaul tried to break the shackles off Sunny’s bowling in the fifth over, he could only find the man at deep square leg. His opening partner Herschelle Gibbs went in the next over, caught by Sunny off the bowling of Cooper, and at the end of the sixth over the scoreboard read an inadequate 34 for two.

 

Smith and Shakib tried to provide some impetus, the former hitting a six off Enamul and the latter hitting Sunny and Muralitharan for fours, but it was not meant to last. Enamul had his revenge in the next over when he had Shakib caught and Niall O’ Brien bowled off successive deliveries. Nasir Hossain then joined Smith and set about rebuilding the innings, but the runs flowed in a trickle by T20 standards. The duo scored 21 runs in four overs before Enamul completed a brilliant bowling display by bowling Smith in his last over to finish with figures of 3 for 22 off his four overs.

 

Nasir and Ayub then formed the only partnership of note in the innings, adding 44 for the sixth wicket. Nasir took his time, and apart from a six hit off Mahmudullah in the fourteenth over looked out of sorts as he played and missed numerous deliveries. But he found his feet eventually, hitting three successive boundaries off Bravo in the eighteenth over to give the innings much-needed impetus. He was dismissed in the next over after hitting another boundary, caught behind off Cooper for 42 off 38 balls with four fours and a six. Russell then took up the charge, hitting a four off his first ball and finishing with a 7-ball 16 with two fours.