Chittagong bowlers set up huge win

Chittagong Kings scored a 54-run win over second-placed Dhaka Gladiators in Chittagong, much to the delight of the throngs of their supporters at the MA Aziz Stadium. Though, the match turned out to be lop-sided, Kings took two vital points and moved to third-position on the points-table.

Kings effectively finished the contest within the Powerplay overs as they reduced Gladiators to 15 for 4. Josh Cobb, the opener, left a huge gap between bat and pad to Arafat Sunny before Anamul Haque and Owais Shah were out trying to force the pace. Darren Stevens then got involved in a mix-up with Mohammad Ashraful and was left stranded in the middle of the pitch.

Gladiators lost regular wickets to slip to 43 for 7 by the 12th over and were in danger of getting all out in less than 20 overs, but the tail-enders survived till the end. Gladiators finally made 88 for 8, the lowest total in the competition. Jacob Oram gave away just seven runs and took two wickets in his four overs while left-arm spinner Elias Sunny, his new-ball partner, accounted for two too.

Earlier, captain Brendan Taylor smashed 41 off 31 balls and Naeem Islam struck six boundaries and a six in his 38-ball 50 to give Kings a good base. Taylor's innings ended when Mahbubul Alam took a spectacular catch on the on-side boundary.

Kings, however, collapsed from 4 for 131 to 142 all out against a Gladiators bowling attack which didn't include Mashrafe Mortaza and Shakib Al Hasan pulled. Alfonso Thomas, Kaushal Lokuarachchi and Mosharraf Hossain took two wickets each.