Gemcon Khulna’s skipper Mahmudullah scored a superlative unbeaten half-century to help his team clinch the Bangabandhu T20 Cup as they defeated Gazi Group Chattogram by five runs in the final at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Friday.

Mahmudullah came up with a captain’s knock scoring 48-ball 70 that helped them post a commendable 155-7 and later bowlers kept their nerve to restrict their opponent to 250-6.

BCB launched the tournament as part of their cricket resumption plan after they successfully hosted BCB President’s Cup, three-team 50 over tournament that was also won by Mahmudullah XI.

The T20 skipper rose on the occasion as he demonstrated some superlative stroke play during his stay in the middle as he decorated his innings with eight fours and two huge sixes.

Mohammad Mithun decided to bowl first after winning the toss. Nahidul Islam responded to the decision by removing Jahurul Islam in the first ball of the innings. Zakir and Ariful both got the start but failed to make it big as Chattogram bowlers maintained tight bowling in the meddle overs. At 119 for 6, it looked like Khulna will struggle to score past the 130 runs mark.

But despite regularly losing wickets on the other end, Mahmudullah played an captains knock to keep his side in the match. Mahmudullah remained unbeaten on 70 off 48 balls to power his to a fighting total of 154 for 7. Nahidul and Shoriful shared 2 wickets each.

In reply, Chattogram were on the back foot since losing their two inform batsman Liton Kumar Das(23) and Soumya Sarkar(12)  and Mithun(7) inside 10 overs and bowlers from the opponent camp continued to put pressure by bowling dot balls regularly.

Shaikat Ali gave a lone fight with 53 runs but hardly found any partner who could score quickly from the other end. Pacer Shahidul kept his nerve giving away 10 runs and picking two vital wickets that secured them to clinch the trophy. Mahmudullah was adjudged man of the match.