Though it was a low-scoring match, yet it was enthralling and Mohammedan Sporting took the revenge by defeating Victoria Club by 2 wickets in a nail-biting affair of GrameenPhone Premier League match held at BNS today. Several players from both sides played their hearts out, but at the end Steve Tikolo became the man-of-the-match. The Kenyan made a remarkable contribution by capturing 3 vital Victoria wickets and made 58 valuable runs when Mohammedan was struggling.

Victoria's 179 was not a good target at all, not at least on this flat track, but Manjural Islam, Saiful Islam and Masudur Rahman made it difficult for the batsmen. Mohammedan lost Rashedul (10) on 12 and Habibul Bashar (5) on 23; the later was trapped lbw by left-arm pacer Manjural Isalm.

Shabbir Khan and Steve Tikolo started off for a partnership that added 55 runs, but Sanwar Hossain, the batsman at number five, wasted too many balls to manage his 20. Sanwar faced 60 balls to do that, which made Mohammedan's easy task daunting. Tikolo was the fifth man to go, got by with 58 off 77 balls with the help of 5 entertaining boundaries, leaving his club reeling on 113 for 4.

The quick fall of Minhajul Abedin (4) and Mohammed Rafique (2) put more pressure on injured Ehsanul Haq (Batted at number seven today and took Habibul Bashar as a runner) and stumper Anwar Hossain. However, Ehsanul managed to get few boundaries at the end (Particularly in the 48th over) before being run-out. His cameo 34 included 4 boundaries; all came in time of urgency. Anwar Hossain sent the ball to backward point to make the wining run in the second ball of the 50th over, thus, secured his team's full points in this vital match.

Victoria had to bowl without Alok Kapali, the reputed leggie, who was hurt while playing a rising ball off Mohammed Rafique that hit his nose. Masudur Rahman claimed 2 wickets for 22 in his tight spell while Manjural (2/39) and Saiful (2/24) had impressive spells too.

Victoria Sporting, lost the toss to Minhajul Abedin, made a good recovery from the early loss of Parvej Ahmed (10), as Al-Sahariar and Jahangir Alam batted prudently and steadily. Al-Sahariar went well with his good form, hit another good knock (51) off 67 balls, well arranged with 4 shots to the rope.

Victoria could have gone further, had Rashed Hanif (8) stayed in the crease. But, the left-handed Pakistani got run-out from a horrible mix-up where he had none but himself to blame. Skipper Masud (10) and Sajjad Ahmed (2) became the victims of Tikolo (Had an impressive figure of 3/22 today).

Alok Kapali (26) and Masudur Rahman (27) chipped in with a couple of cameos at the end and Victoria ended up with 179 on their board. Taposh (2/39) and Shafiuddin Ahmed (2/28) were the other successful duo for Mohammedan.

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