He looks certain to be named in Australia's squad for the World Cup in West Indies and the United States
Comilla Victorians sweep past Rangpur Riders to go top of BPL table
Comilla Victorians have blown Rangpur Riders away with a nine-wicket victory to go top of the Bangladesh Premier League table.
Published : 27 Nov 2015, 02:20 PM
Updated : 27 Nov 2015, 02:49 PM
Nuwan Kulasekera's career-best four-wicket haul helped Mashrafe Bin Mortaza's Victorians skittle out the Riders for a mere 82, the lowest-ever total in the competition.
The team from Comilla breezed to the target in just 11.5 overs losing just one wicket at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur on Friday.
The Riders were without their captain Shakib Al Hasan who is serving a one-match ban for hurling insult at the umpire during Thursday's match against Sylhet Superstars.
In their previous match, the Victorians had bundled out Barisal Bulls for 89, which was lowest-ever total for a team batting first in the BPL until this match.
With the win, the Victorians, who lost their opening match of this edition, drew level on 6 points with the Riders but sit pretty at the top on net run rate.
Opener Mahmudul Hasan (11) was the only Victorians batsman to be dismissed before Imrul Kayes (24) and Marlon Samuels (42 off 24) sailed to the target.
The way the Victorians chased the target proved that the track was good for batting but the Riders' batsmen threw away their wickets after being put to bat first.
They slipped to 32 for 5 after Kulasekera had run through the top-order with a double-strike in his first over.
Soumya Sarkar prolonged his poor run with the bat when he walked back for just 3 before the Sri Lankan pacer took out Lendl Simmons (5) in the next ball.
Soumya has scored just 67 runs in five matches so far.
The bowlers then tightened the screws on the Riders' batsmen.
Sunil Narine forced a big shot from Jahurul Islam (4) who holed out at deep midwicket before Misbah-ul-Haq (6 off 17 balls), who was the stand-in captain in place of Shakib, was trapped lbw by Abu Hider Rony.
Mohammad Mithun (28 off 42 balls) tried to anchor the innings with Thisara Perera (9) but both struggled before Abu Hider ended the latter’s misery.
Kulasekara struck again to remove Mithun and Senanayake before the innings ended with two miserable run outs
Kulasekera returned 4 for 12 in 4 overs while Abu Hider took 2 for 12. Narine and Ashar Zaidi chipped in with a wicket each.
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