After the batting paradises of Chittagong that produced the highest score of the fifth edition of the Bangladesh Premier League, Dhaka's Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium was the scene of the season's lowest total, but according to long-suffering Chittagong Vikings captain Luke Ronchi it had very little to do with the pitch. Unlike Rangpur and Rajshahi's surrender for 100-odd totals on a treacherous pitch on Saturday, Ronchi said it was just down to bad batting that the Vikings were all out for 67 and lost the match by 10 wickets to fellow fifth-edition black sheep Sylhet Sixers.
Nasir Hossain led from the front with a five-wicket haul that was instrumental in delivering the win with 10.5 overs to spare and Sylhet, who have had one foot out of the tournament for some time now, earned themselves a temporary stay of execution, but they were eventually knocked out hours later by virtue of Rangpur's win over Khulna. Chittagong are abject outsiders with just two wins from 11 games.
For the Vikings, the innings ironically started with a six off the first ball bowled by Sylhet skipper Nasir Hossain to his opposite number. Ronchi, however, was out off the very next ball and Soumya Sarkar departed in the last ball of that over. Exactly 11 overs later, the players were walking back to the pavilion with the scoreboard reading 67 all out. Only three batsmen -- Luis Reece, Stiaan Van Zyl and Irfan Sukkur -- reached double figures and none were higher than Irfan's 15.
"The wicket was alright," said Ronchi, who has cut a forlorn figure throughout the BPL and yesterday was left to fend for himself at the post-match presser as no one from the Vikings management accompanied him. "It was probably a 140-150 sort of wicket. It was just poor batting. From what I saw of yesterday's stuff and today, it was a different wicket; it was just really getting out to different shots and different dismissals and things like that. It was more the batting than the pitch."
Nasir conceded 31 runs from his four overs but had the scalps of Ronchi, Soumya, Reece, Van Zyl and Tanbir Hayder. While the surface was not as treacherous as the dual-bounce terrors of the previous day, there was considerable turn and the beleaguered Chittagong batsmen had no answer to Nasir, off-spinner Sharifullah (2 for 23) or left-arm spinner Nabil Samad (3 for 7).
Given the paltry nature of the chase, Sylhet did not break a sweat in reaching 68 in 11.1 overs without loss, with Mohammad Rizwan unbeaten on 36 off 33 and Andre Fletcher with him on an unbeaten 32 off 34.
