Afghanistan emerge champions
Bangladesh frittered away a golden opportunity to win the Trinidad Quadrangular T20 competition when they let Trinidad & Tobago escape from the perils of 12 for five to lose their last game of the competition by four wickets at the Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain on Saturday.
Instead, it was Afghanistan who emerged champions by beating Barbados by five wickets earlier in the day at the same venue. A victory over Trinidad & Tobago would have given Bangladesh the trophy as they had won their first two matches — against Afghanistan and Barbados — but the loss meant that Afghanistan finished on top by dint of a superior net run-rate in the league-based competition.
The Tigers, officially playing the tournament as BCB XI, seemed likely winners for more than half their match against the home team. They had scored 124 after being put in to bat — a decent score considering the conditions and the Tigers’ battery of spinners — and had sent back half the opposition batsmen with only twelve runs on the board.
Pacer Shafiul Islam did the early damages by sending back openers Adrian Barath and William Perkins in a tight and incisive spell, while left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak dented the home team further with the wickets of Navin Stewart, Justin Gullen and captain Darren Ganga.
T&T however rallied after that, building their recovery around a solid run-a-ball 40 by Sherwin Ganga, who first built a 39-run sixth wicket stand with Jason Mohammed and then an unbeaten 73-run seventh wicket partnership with Yannick Ottley.
Ottley was the one who provided the impetus during his 27-ball 52 which was punctuated by four sixes and a boundary. What seemed a lost cause for the home team was transformed into a thrilling win by the seventh wicket pair who romped home with three balls to spare.
Other than Razzak and Shafiul, all Bangladesh bowlers were put to the sword with Shakib Al Hasan in particular coming in for harsh punishment, going for 29 runs in 2.3 overs.
Earlier, Mohammad Ashraful and Nasir Hossain did the bulk of the scoring as the Tigers reached a modest but competitive 124 for nine after 20 overs. Ashraful got BCB XI off to a good start, striking four boundaries and a six in his 21-ball 30, but after he was bowled by Ottley with the score on 40, it started a procession of Bangladesh batsman to and from the pavilion. Captain Mushfiqur Rahim and star players Shakib and Mahmudullah Riyad left within twenty runs of each other, and the score would have been much less but for a 32-run sixth wicket stand between Nasir and Ziaur Rahman. Nasir remained unbeaten on 31 off 37 balls when the innings ended, while Sherwin Ganga and Dave Mohammed took three wickets each for the home team.
SCORES IN BRIEF
BCB XI: 124-9 in 20 overs (Ashraful 30, Shakib 10, Mahmudullah 12, Nasir 31 not out, Zia 13; D. Mohammed 3-17, S. Ganga 3-20, Ottley 2-17, Emrit 1-18)
TRINIDAD & TOBAGO: 129-6 in 19.3 overs (J. Mohammed 24, S. Ganga 40 not out, Ottley 52 not out; Razzak 3-17, Shafiul 2-12, Abul 1-21)
Result: Trinidad & Tobago won by four wickets.
-With The Daily Star input
