Mashrafe, Samuels star in Comilla Victorians' seven-wicket win over Chittagong Vikings

Captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza has put on a fine show with the bat to lead Comilla Victorians to a seven-wicket victory with Marlon Samuels.

A combined batting effort helped the Vikings to 176 for 4 after being put to bat at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur on Tuesday.

After another failure from the Victorians' openers, Mashrafe (56), who promoted himself to No. 5, paired with Samuels (69) for an unbeaten century partnership to guide his team to the win with seven balls to spare.

Mashrafe made room and glided Mohammad Amir to backward point boundary for the winning runs, before racing to the dressing room to join his teammates in a victory celebration.

Their opener Imrul Kayes walked back for a second successive duck in the first over off Mohammad Amir who also took out his partner Litton Kumer Das (9) in the next over.

Shuvagata Hom Chowdhury's cameo (30 off 16 balls) brought Comilla's chase back on track. 

He opened his account with three fours off Taskin Ahmed before launching Shafiul Islam for two sixes in an over that also had a boundary. But Shafiul got his man with a slower in his next over from the other end.

With Samuels snailing 11, the required run rate had jumped to 10 per over for the Victorians, when Mashrafe came out in the middle.

Mashrafe, who was dropped twice and had survived a run-out by an inch, played some beautiful shots to keep the required rate within reach.

Samuels slowly joined in as the duo made 123 runs off just 69 balls to power their team to their first win in the 2015 Bangladesh Premier League.

Samuels 52-balls innings was laced with eight fours and a six while Mashrafe studded his 32-ball knock with four boundaries and three sixes.  
It was Mashrafe's first half-century in his 79th Twenty20 match.

Earlier, Tamim Iqbal (33), Tillakaratne Dilshan (36), Anamul Haque (39) had all made useful contributions for the Viking but it was Ziaur Rahman's blistering innings (39 off 16 balls) that hauled them to the total.

He hammered Abu Hider Rony for three sixes and a four to score 22 runs in an over before launching the mercurial Sunil Narine for a six in the last over.

It was the first match of the day for the Chittagong team for the third straight day.

Tamim and Dilshan gave them a good start as the latter cracked three successive boundaries in the first over.

Dilshan scored three boundaries off Mashrafe's first over too before Tamim greeted Narine with a six over long on.

The 63-run opening stand was broken when Dilshan tried a switch hit off Ashar Zaidi, only for a topedge to point.

Tamim hammered Zaidi for a six to give the Vikings fans hopes of a third successive fifty but fell in the next ball when he tried to hit one out of the ground.

After Mashrafe picked up his only wicket by dismissing Chamara Kapugedera (2), Anamul, in at three, kept his calm and paired in two useful partnerships.

He scored 39 runs with Yasir Ali Chowdhury (22) in the fourth wicket stand before making an unbeaten 53 with Zia.

Anamul and Zia scored 38 runs off the last two overs.

Zaidi returned 2 for 29 in 4 overs while Mashrafe and Narine chipped in with a wicket each.