Dhaka – Rangpur Riders routed Sylhet Sixers by four wickets for their 5th winin the 5th Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) T20 at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Cricket Stadium here on Tuesday. Rangpur chased down a target of 174 runs scoring 177 for 6 in 19.4 overs with Nahidul Islam firing a boundary in the match’s last ball. The game was appearing to fall into a climax when Ravi Bopara was run out on 146/6 in 17.2 overs and Rangpur needed 28 runs more off 16 balls for a win. Nahidul Islam came at the crease and partnered with skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza in the 7th wicket stand for their victory, sharing unbeaten innings of 31* in 14 balls in the end. “It was hearth-throbbing one. It was tough, but the good thing is we got 10 points and we can now relax. It’s very important to play well under pressure and for the boys to step up,” said Rangpur captain Mashrafe after the match adding that they won the last five matches all have been very close.” Mashrafe fired two sixes off 10 balls for 17* runs while Nahidul hammered two boundaries off 7 balls for 14* runs.Brendon McCullum top-scoring 43 off 38 balls, including four boundaries and two sixes, and shared a quick partnership of 59 off 5 overs with Ziaur Rahman in the 2nd wicket stand which started after the dismissal of opener Chris Gayle — was caught Tim Bresnan off Sohail Tanvir in the innings very 4th ball leaving the team collection on 7 runs — and ended on 66/2 in 5.4 overs as Ziaur was stumped by keeper Nurul Hasan off Nabil Samad.
Ziaur stayed for 36 off 18 balls, including five boundaries and two sixes, while Ravi Bopara (33 off 24b; 1×4; 1×6) and Mohammad Mithun (18 off 17b; 1×4) were the other double digit scorers for the side.Abul Hasan, Nabil Samad, Tim Bresnan and Sohail Tanvir bagged one wicket each conceding 25, 31, 40 and 44 runs respectively for the losing side. Sent in to bat first, Sylhet Sixers scored 173 for 5 in 20 overs with Babar Azam hitting a half century of 54 off 37 balls, including four boundaries and one six, and shared a partnership of 74 off 8.2 overs with Sabbir Rahman in the 4th pair stand.Sylhet Sixers lost three top-order batsmen –Nurul Hasan, skipper Nasir Hossain and Andre Fletcher — for 53 runs in 7.2 overs from where Babar and Sabbir started their 4th pair composures and carried the team total to 127/4 in 15.4 overs before Babar was victim of run out.Sabbir fell short of six runs for another half century as he was bowled out by skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, scoring 44 off 37 balls with five boundaries when the scoreboard showing their collection 150/5 in 18.3 overs.Opener Andre Fletcher scored 26 off 17 balls, including two boundaries and one six, while Ross Whiteley and Tim Bresnan added unbeaten 17* and 11* runs respectively to share a partnership of 23 off 9 balls in the unbeaten 6th pair.Man of the match Nazmul Islam captured three wickets for 18 runs while Mashrafe took one for 39 runs. Both bowled four overs each.With the day’s results, Rangpur holding the 4th slot in the table collecting 10 points from nine games with five wins and four losses.Sylhet Sixers secured seven points from 10 matches with three wins, six losses and one no results.UNB news agency
