Comilla Victorians 149 for 3 (Narine 57, Moeen 30*, du Plessis 30*) beat Chattogram Challengers 148 (Miraz 44, Akbar 33, Moeen 3-20, Shohidul 3-33) by seven wickets
How the match played out
Sunil Narine hit the fastest fifty in BPL history - off 13 balls - as Comilla Victorians put together an astonishing chase to reach their third BPL final. They hammered down their 149-run target in just 12.5 overs against Chattogram Challengers after beginning the chase with 20 and 23 runs off the first two overs, respectively. Their final opponents, Fortune Barishal, must be on alert after Comilla's promotion of Narine in the batting order worked wonders.
Comilla, who were beaten by Barishal in the first qualifier, now look like a formidable force after bowling out Chattogram for 148, and then winning by seven wickets without much trouble. Narine reached his fifty off just 13 balls, breaking Ahmed Shehzad's BPL record off 16 balls.
Narine added 79 runs in just 5.3 overs with Imrul Kayes for the second wicket, before Faf du Plessis and Moeen Ali bashed the remaining 54 runs in their unbroken fourth-wicket stand. Chattogram would however be proud of reaching the second qualifier after losing the plot midway through the tournament.
Big hit
But it was Narine who made heads turn in this game. After Comilla lost Litton Das off the first ball of their chase, Narine smashed 14 runs off the last three balls of Shoriful Islam's over. Then he smacked 22 off the 23 runs in the next over, bowled by Mehidy Hasan Miraz, who had top-scored with 44 in Chattogram's innings.
Mehidy went on to drop Imrul off Afif Hossain in the next over, but the Comilla captain was a mere spectator for most of the chase. Narine ensured Comilla reached 84 runs in the powerplay, the second most in the BPL's history.
Narine smashed three sixes over midwicket but his two fours and two sixes through long-off and extra cover stood out. He also slammed three square-cuts to take his boundary count to five fours and six sixes.
Imrul struck three fours and a six in his 22 off 24 balls, but it was Moeen who finished the job in style with two consecutive sixes off Shoriful, who went for 31 runs in 1.5 overs.
Big miss
Will Jacks finishes the tournament as the highest run-getter, having reached 414 runs to go past Andre Fletcher's 410 runs. But Chattogram would have preferred their English opener hammering a few more quick runs in this encounter. Jacks and Chadwick Walton falling in the first five overs made all the difference between the two sides, as Chattogram gave Comilla an average total to chase.
