Malik, Hasan halt Dynamites’ winning run

DHAKA: Sunil Narine’s impressive all-round show went in vain as Comilla Victorians notched up a four-wicket victory to bring Dhaka Dynamites’ four-match winning streak to a screeching halt on Monday.
Pakistan duo of Hasan Ali and Shoaib Malik shone with the ball and bat respectively as Victorians chased down the 129-run target with three balls to spare.
Hasan’s five-fer restricted the home side to a meagre 128, that despite a sparkling 45-ball 76 from Narine who opened the innings. The 23-year-old pacer struck with his very first ball of the match to send back Evin Lewis, before Mehedi Maruf departed one ball later, without troubling the scorers. Narine, who had kicked off proceedings with a boundary and a six in the opening over, spoilt Hasan’s figures by piling on 14 in his next over to take his team to a respectable 49 for 2 at the end of the powerplay overs. Along with Kumar Sangakkara, Narine put on 92 for the third wicket while thoroughly dominating the partnership. The West Indian spared no bowler and raised his fifty off just 30 deliveries. Narine’s innings was laced with seven boundaries and five hits over the fence.
Mehedi Hasan’s sharp throw from the deep cut short Sangakkara’s stay in the middle as Victorians got an opening after 11 overs. Narine inflicted some more damage - a four and a six off Mohammad Saifuddin - but fell in the same over as dynamites slipped to 114 for 4. He had, though, set the platform for the likes of Kieron Pollard and Shakib Al Hasan to propel their team to a commanding total but Dynamites’ innings collapsed soon after. The remaining six wickets fell for just 14 more runs as Hasan added three more to his tally in the form of tail-enders to finish with figures of 5 for 20 from in the 3.3 overs he bowled. Tamim Iqbal kicked off Victorians reply in fine fashion - picking up 16 off the first over from Mohammad Amir. His opening partner Liton Das, though, lasted only three balls and fell without opening his account. Narine came into the attack soon after and got Dynamites the key wicket of the big-hitting Tamim.
Dynamites came back hard at Victorians as the runs dried out. Malik lost two partners, in Imrul Kayes (20) and Darren Bravo (12), in quick succession. With 31 more to win in the final four overs, Amir sent down a perfect 17th over - picking up the wickets of Jos Buttler and Saifuddin in the space of three deliveries and conceding only five runs in total. However, Malik turned the tables on Dynamites by hitting Saddam Hossain for a six and a couple of fours across his final two overs.
Brief scores: Dhaka Dynamites 128 in 18.3 overs (Sunil Narine 76, Kumar Sangakkara 28; Hasan Ali 5-20). Comilla Victorians 129/6 in 19.4 overs (Shoaib Malik 54*, Imrul Kayes 20; Sunil Narine 2-17, M Amir 2-28).