Fortune Barishal 157 for 4 (Mayers 46, Tamim 39, Moeen 2-28, Mustafizur 2-31) beat Comilla Victorians 154 for 6 (Ankon 38, Russell 27*, Fuller 2-43) by six wickets
It was left to Mayers to take Barishal closer to the trophy. He struck five fours and two sixes, both off Andre Russell who went for 21 in the 15th over. Mayers got 20 of those, to finish on 46 off 30 balls.
Comilla made several fielding errors in the latter stages with catches going down. Mahmudullah and David Miller then got Barishal home in the 19th over.
When Comilla were sent to bat first, Sunil Narine got an early life. Obed McCoy dropped him at third-man but he made it up later in the over. Narine swung one off his hips, only for McCoy to dive to his left to complete a fine catch at short fine-leg.
Fuller kept up the pressure when he removed Towhid Hridoy and Litton Das in consecutive overs in the powerplay. McCoy accounted for Johnson Charles shortly after, before Moeen Ali fell short when Mehidy Hasan Miraz scored with a direct hit from point.
Mahidul Islam Ankon and Jaker Ali kept Comilla chugging along in the middle overs but their 36 runs for the sixth wicket took up 29 balls. It was priceless for Barishal who could keep Andre Russell in the dressing room for a longer time.
When Saifuddin removed Ankon in the 17th over, it gave Russell just 3.2 overs to do his thing. He hammered four sixes in the 14 balls he faced but struggled to get Saifuddin away in the final over. The allrounder conceded three wides and a no-ball but went for only seven runs in the over.
More importantly, Saifuddin didn’t allow a four or a six at a time when Comilla could have still taken some momentum into the innings.
