Siddique, Bopara fifties steer Sylhet home

Sylhet Super Stars 162 for 4 (Bopara 55, Junaid 51) beat Dhaka Dynamites 157 for 5 (Sangakkara 48, Razzak 2-9) by six wickets
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Captain Shahid Afridi kept Sylhet Super Stars' qualification hopes alive by slamming two sixes in the last over of their contest against Dhaka Dynamites. With the six-wicket win, Sylhet now have six points, while Dhaka sit on eight. Both teams have a match each on the final day of the league phase.

After Junaid Siddique and Ravi Bopara had done all the hard work in Sylhet's 158-run chase by putting up an 86-run second-wicket partnership, all that was left for Sohail Tanvir and Afridi to do was take 15 runs off the last two overs. Mustafizur Rahman, however, gave away just five runs in the penultimate over, leaving Farhad Raza with 10 to defend off the last.

Afridi squeezed a single off the first ball before Farhad bowled Tanvir, who tried to sweep the ball. Mushfiqur Rahim took a single off the next ball, leaving Afridi needing eight off the last three deliveries. But Farhad messed up his lines and Afridi calmly went down on one knee to sweep the ball over fine-leg and square-leg for consecutive sixes.

Afridi's clean blows were in stark contrast to Bopara's first boundary of the match - a streaky edge past the wicketkeeper in the eighth over. Bopara, though, hardly looked back after that, as he struck Mosharraf Hossain for two sixes in the following over before slamming Yasir Shah through the covers. He then blasted Reza over long-off for two flat sixes and brought up his second fifty of the tournament, in the 16th over. But like Siddique, he fell with victory near in sight.

While Bopara carted the bowlers, there was no relenting at the other end as Siddique got to his fifty in the 14th over, off 36 balls. Siddique rode out Josh Cobb's run-out in the fifth over - brilliantly done by Kumar Sangakkara running towards the stumps - to launch further into the Dhaka bowlers. He pulled Yasir for a boundary before hitting his third six over long-on. Siddique, though, was dismissed for a 44-ball 51, with Sylhet needing 36 to win off the last 4.3 overs. Thankfully for the team, Afridi and Tanvir were there to get them home.

Earlier, Sangakkara and Nasir Hossain put together their second fifty-plus partnership, this time for the fourth wicket, to pull Dhaka out of another quagmire. Yasir was the first wicket to fall after making 8, caught at long-off in the sixth over, triggering the quick dismissals of Mohammad Hafeez and Reza as well.

Nasir then joined Sangakkara, who by now had struck a beautiful straight drive as his first boundary and was batting with great touch. The pair's 69-run stand was livened by Sangakkara howling at Nasir, who kept missing attempts to play the scoop. Nasir eventually struck two sixes over wide long-on and the bowler's head before falling for 31 off 23 balls. Sangakkara batted till the last over, for 48 off 35 balls with seven fours, but Dhaka's final score of 157 for 5 proved to be insufficient in the end.