Howell, Shafiqul star in Sylhet's consolation victory

Benny Howell's all-round performance accompanied by Shafiqul Islam's brilliant display of death bowling helped Sylhet Strikers a 12-run victory over second-placed Comilla Victorians on Monday. The result of the match didn't have an impact on the points table. The win actually came a bit too late for the Strikers as they are mathematically out of the playoffs race already. 

Sylhet now have 8 points from their 11 matches so far and have just one match against Khulna Tigers before the current runner-up finish their campaign. Even if they win the match against Khulna on 23 February, they will finish with 10 points which will be well short of the required point for the playoffs. 

Howell hammered a blistering 62 runs from 31 balls at a strike rate of 200 to give Sylhet a decent total on the board early in the day. He hit six 4s and four maximums in his innings. 

Howell was accompanied well by Kennar Lewis (33 off 25 balls) and skipper Mohammad Mithun (28 off 20 balls) to take Sylhet to 177/5 in their 20 overs.

Sunil Narine and Rishad Hossain took a couple of wickets each for Comilla.

Chasing 178 runs, Comilla captain Litton Das hit a brisk 85 off 58 balls but couldn't save Victorians from suffering a 12-run defeat. Liton's innings contained seven fours and three sixes. He batted till the final over of the match before losing his wicket to pacer Tanzim Hasan Sakib. 

But Sylhet bowlers took wickets at regular intervals and didn't let Comilla get away with the match. Even a 14-ball 23 from Andre Russell wasn't enough to get Comilla over the line as they finished on 165-6 after 20 overs.

Tanzim clinched three wickets for 33 runs, including the crucial dismissal of Russell on his final delivery. However, the standout performances came from English spinner Samit Patel and local medium pacer Shafiqul Islam, who each claimed a wicket while conceding only 15 and 18 runs in their four-over spells, respectively.