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Dhaka Warriors rode on an elegant 57 off 40 balls from opener Shahriar Nafees to beat Mumbai Champs by six wickets in the Indian Cricket League Twenty20 tournament at Tau Devi Lal Stadium in Gurgaon on Monday night.
Nafees paired with Aftab Ahmed to produce a 54-run second-wicket partnership off 32 balls.
The victory kept the Dhaka team's hopes in the tournament alive. They now have to win at least two of their remaining three matches to reach the semi-final stage. The Mumbai team is out of contention.
Invited to bat first, Mumbai Champs found the going tough against the Dhaka Warriors bowlers, but thanks to a late onslaught by Ranjeet Khirid they posted a moderate 151 for the loss of six wickets.
The Mumbai team crossed the 100-run mark with four overs remaining. Khirid scored an unbeaten 51 off just 25 balls, inclusive of four boundaries and as many sixes, to power his side past the 150-run mark.
Khirid, who paired with J J van der Wath to add 74 off 41 balls, gathered 18 runs from the last over of the innings off Mohd Shariff en route his maiden half-century in the ICL.
For Dhaka Warriors, Mosharraf Hossain bagged two wickets for 20 runs, while Shariff, Baisya and Kapali took one each.
Chasing 152, Dhaka Warriors started on an attacking note as opener Shahriar Nafees sent Suyash Burkul out of the ground on three occasions in the first over, which produced 12 runs.
Although the Dhaka team lost Mohd Nazimuddin (2) cheaply, the Mumbai bowlers failed to stop Shahriar and Aftab, as both batsmen showed great understanding and kept rotating strikes by placing the balls into the gaps.
The partnership came to an end when Aftab was bowled by Mumba's Khanolkar for 23.
The Dhaka team reached the 100-run mark in the 13th over. Shahriar, who struck nine boundaries and sent the ball once for maximum, had to head back after being given out LBW to young leg-spinner Sridhar Iyer.
Despite skipper Bashar's (4) early dismissal, Alok Kapali carried the flag and scored an unbeaten 48 off 34 balls. He was involved in a 39 run-partnership off 21 balls with Dhiman Ghosh, which wrapped the match with eight balls to spare.
Kapali was adjudged man of the match.