A hat-trick by Pakistani pacer Wahab Riaz helped Comilla Victorians register a huge 80-run victory over Khulna Titans in the Bangladesh Premier League on Monday.
Victorians started the innings well and opener Evin Lewis and veteran Tamim Iqbal put on a 58-run partnership for the first wicket before the latter was dismissed caught out after scoring 25 off 29 with the help of three boundaries and a six.
Anamul Haque didn’t trouble the scorers as he was dismissed for a first-ball duck.
Lewis — who played an unbeaten blitz of 109 from just 49 balls with five fours and 10 maximums to his name — put on a 103-run partnership with skipper Imrul Kayes, who chipped in with 39.
Thisara Parera contributed 11 runs while Shamsur Rehman’s late 28-run knock took the side to a mammoth total of 237-5 in their 20 overs.
The Titans got off to a good start in the massive run-chase of 238 as Zimbabwe’s wicketkeeper batsman Brendan Taylor and Junaid Siddique scored 57-run partnership on the first wicket. However, the side started to lose wickets on regular intervals.
Apart from Taylor, no other batsman could provide much resistance to the Victorian bowlers as he was the top scorer with 50 off 33. The left-arm Pakistani pacer dismissed David Wiese, Taijul Islam and Mohammad Saddam on the third, fourth and fifth delivery of the penultimate over to complete his hat-trick.
Pakistani leg-spinner Shahid Afridi also finished with three wickets.
Riaz took a hattrick against Gloucestershire for Kent during Friends Life T20 in 2011.
This is the fourth hattrick in BPL history and the second of this season.
