DHA­KA – The West In­dies trio of Sunil Nar­ine, John­son Charles and An­dre Rus­sell had lit­tle im­pact with the bat but reign­ing cham­pi­ons Comil­la Vic­to­ri­ans still man­aged to beat Nicholas Pooran’s Rang­pur Rid­ers by six wick­ets and storm in­to the fi­nal of the Bangladesh Pre­mier League on Mon­day.

Chas­ing a chal­leng­ing 186 in the first qual­i­fi­er at the Shere Bangla Na­tion­al Sta­di­um, Vic­to­ri­ans reached their tar­get with nine balls to spare with cap­tain Lit­ton Das top-scor­ing with 83 from 57 balls and Towhid Hri­doy chop­ping in with 64 from 43 de­liv­er­ies.

The pair put on a mag­nif­i­cent 143 for the sec­ond wick­et af­ter the left-hand­ed Nar­ine per­ished to the first ball of the run chase, caught at the wick­et off left-arm seam­er Fazal­haq Fa­rooqi (2-27).

Lit­ton Das belt­ed nine fours and four six­es while Towhid struck five fours and four six­es, a stand which put Vic­to­ri­ans in sight of vic­to­ry.

Charles, mean­while, made on­ly 10 at num­ber four while Rus­sell en­tered with the game al­ready won, fin­ish­ing un­beat­en on two.

Sent in ear­li­er, Rid­ers racked up 185 for six off their 20 overs with New Zealan­der James Nee­sham top-scor­ing with an un­beat­en 97 from 49 de­liv­er­ies and cap­tain Nu­rul Hasan get­ting 30 from 24 balls.

The left-hand­ed Pooran was dis­missed cheap­ly for a nine-ball 14 af­ter lash­ing a four and a six.

Rus­sell picked up two for 37 with his fast-medi­um while off-spin­ner Nar­ine claimed one for 11 from four out­stand­ing overs.

CMC