MOMENTS

DAWN DOESN'T TELL THE DAY, BUT MORNING DOES

When embattled Chittagong Vikings skipper Luke Ronchi hit opposite number Nasir Hossain's first ball of the match for a straight six, it seemed that there would be a change in the low-scoring tide. That feeling lasted for one ball. Nasir held his nerve to float one up outside off stump and Ronchi tried to give it the full treatment, but the ball snuck between pad and the expansive drive to hit timber. When Soumya Sarkar offered a return catch off the last ball of the over, the picture was clear: the first ball was an outlier, but the first over certainly was a harbinger of things to come.

HOPES DASHED: PART TWO

With hopes of a big score long since abandoned by the time five Chittagong wickets fell, there was now the hope of Stiaan Van Zyl and Irfan Sukkur putting together a rearguard and taking the score past 120 so that, at least, it would be a good match. But Nasir spoiled that too in the seventh over. Babar Azam had already dropped Van Zyl on four in the fourth over off Sharifullah and when Irfan and Van Zyl hit two boundaries off Nasir the partnership stood at a stellar 15 runs and the score 45 for five. But for the second time yesterday, Nasir dashed Chittagong hopes -- and also brought up his first T20 five-wicket haul -- by getting Van Zyl to hole out. 22 runs later, it was all over.

DROPS GALORE

Rangpur's half-centurion Mohammad Mithun was the chief beneficiary of some terrible catching, being dropped on eight and 30. The first one, dropped by Carlos Brathwaite in the deep off Khulna skipper Mahmudullah Riyad in the eighth over, was a difficult one in the context of the two to follow, as Brathwaite actually had to run. The next one, in the 19th over off the bowling of Joffra Archer, was a dolly to mid on that BPL debutant Mohammad Irfan did not even get a palm to as it bounced off his chest. The title of the worst drop, however, has to go to Rangpur's Nazmul Islam, who dropped Nazmul Hossain on zero in the second ball of the chase. A top-edge off Shohag Gazi was looping towards short fine leg and all eyes instinctively darted back to the pitch to see the celebrations and the dejection. Unfortunately Nazmul's eyes seemed to do that as well.