Alok Kapali played a spectacular innings of 39 not out to give Comilla Victorians the BPL title off the last ball of the final here at Shere Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka on Tuesday.
The valiant Barisal Bulls were beaten by three wickets in the end, but it could so easily have been their trophy heading into the final overs of the match, ESPNcricinfo reported.
The heartbreak was greatest for Mahmudullah whose all-round performance was sensational – 48 runs, two wickets, a brilliant catch and cool captaincy.
But it was Kapali, regarded as a has-been for the last three years, who made 39 off 28 balls with five fours, four of those off the last eight balls of the game. He struck two fours in the last over, and ran the winning run off the last ball in front a packed Shere Bangla National Stadium.
Imrul Kayes' 53 had earlier set Comilla up but the chase was almost derailed when their key player Ashar Zaidi was run out at a crucial stage.
Comilla needed 29 off the last three overs and Darren Stevens and Kapali were struggling to pick up boundaries. Stevens cracked Mohammad Sami for a much-needed four through the covers but the over produced only six runs.
In the next over, Stevens fell to Kevon Cooper, holing out to long-on off the first ball, before Mahmudullah ran hard to his right from cover and took a tumbling catch, to dismiss his opposite number Mashrafe Mortaza.
Cooper missed his hat-trick but, critically, Kapali swung two crucial boundaries, both through the leg side, off the last two balls of the penultimate over, bringing the target down to 13 off the last over.
Shuvagata was run out first ball, trying to take two runs to the point boundary. Nuwan Kulasekara ran a bye off the second ball before Kapali struck two more fours to reduce make it three runs off the last two deliveries.
He got two off the fourth ball, although the square cut was bound for the boundary ropes, until Seekkuge Prasanna intervened superbly to stop the four. The winning hit was a tapped single to short fine leg.
Earlier, Kayes played his part, getting Comilla off to a swift start and bringing the target down to 65 off 50 deliveries by the time of his dismissal in the 12th over.
He began with four boundaries in the first 11 balls of the Comilla innings, blasting and flicking through the leg side three times and hitting a perfect extra-cover drive. Liton Das' campaign ended with another disappointing stay, as he top-edged a pull for 3, easily taken by the bowler Sami.
Kayes and Ahmed Shehzad then added 54 runs for the third wicket; Shehzad made a 24-ball 30 with three fours, before he was easily caught at short fine-leg off Mahmudullah.
Kayes launched his first six off Mahmudullah in the sixth over and raced to his fifty off 33 balls with two successive sixes off Seekkuge Prasanna in the 11th over. He fell to Mahmudullah in the next over, caught at point by Sabbir Rahman. His knock took his tournament tally to 312, second only to Kumar Sangakkara's 349 on the run charts.
Zaidi, Comilla's best player in the tournament, was run out for 16 off 14 balls. His dismissal illustrated Barisal's impressive fielding throughout this BPL, as Mahmudullah's brilliant pick-up and throw was well taken by the bowler Cooper who broke the stumps in time.
Mahmudullah and Nafees' aggressiveness with the bat had earlier propelled Barisal to 156 for 4 after they were put in to bat. The pair added 81 runs for the fourth wicket, only the second fifty-plus stand in a BPL final.
The last six overs cost Comilla 68 runs for only one wicket as their penetrative bowling from the league stage and the qualifiers went missing. The late onslaught actually began in the 14th over when Nafees broke a 26-ball boundary drought with a slog-sweep for six off Zaidi.
Mahmudullah got stuck into Mashrafe in the next over, taking him for 16 runs with two fours and a slog-swept six.
Two more fours came off the 17th and 18th overs, Mahmudullah and Nafees hitting two each. The 19th over, bowled by Abu Hider, went for 18 runs.
Mahmudullah found two fours and Nafees hammered a straight six, which prompted his partner to do a little jig while watching the ball sail over the long-on boundary.
In the final over, Mahmudullah - who was dropped in the 18th over on 35 - fell for a 36-ball 48. Cooper's six off the penultimate delivery took Barisal's total past the 150-mark, a total the side would not have expected when Sabbir Rahman was bowled by Mashrafe in the 11th over to leave the score at 68 for 3.
Prasanna, sent in to open the innings, had tried to keep Barisal's run-rate over six an over, with his 19-ball 33 that included two fours and two leg-side sixes.
