Rangpur Riders won in a low scoring thriller to earn their first win over in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) cricket defeating Sylhet Strikers by four wickets on Tuesday.
Sylhet and Rangpur both the teams were hunting for their first win after suffering defeats in their respective openers.
Babar and Abdullah Omar Zai played unbeaten 56 and 47 runs innings respectively to guide Rangpur Riders to win against Sylhet Strikers when the overseas duo recovered from 39-6 to overwhelm the opponents. However, held at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium, Mirpur, Sylhet Strikers after being sent to bat first saw an early collapse losing the first wicket on 13 runs and their disasters were continuing with losing five wickets for 39 runs by 8.2 overs.
Mahadi Hasan, who claimed two wicket for 18 runs in his four overs spell, struck first to make the first breakthrough picking up the one of the openers Mohammad Mithun for only five runs.
Masharafe Bin Mortaza, for national captain, who came as one down, was runout after scoring six runs and Sylhet reduced to 24 for two wickets. Losing three successive wickets for 15 runs, Sylhet Strikers plunged into huge trouble , as they were reduced to 39 for five.
Mahadi Hassan again struck to send back Yasir Ali for nine and Mohammed Nabi took Zakir Hassan for just one run and the captain Nazmul Hassan Shanto who was struggling with 14 runs from 24 deliveries to halt damage, became the Hasan Murad’s victim and left Sylhet 39 for five.
Benny Howell and Ben Cutting, men from England and Australia respectively just rescued Sylhet with scoring 68 runs from 9.2 overs at six wickets stand, as the defending runners up could score a respectable total 120 runs. Benny Howell and Ben Cutting scored 37 runs each from 32 and 35 deliveries with the former hitting three fours and one six and the later four fours and one six.
But the efforts of two overseas players were not enough to defend the total of 120 to win the match.
Ripon Mandal and Mahadi Hasan were successful bowlers for Rangpur taking two wickets each.
Replying to a paltry total, Rangpur Riders were also not look comfortable as they lost six wickets and had to play 18.2 over to reach the winning target. Rangpur Riders, chasing to moderate target saw the early setback losing the first wicket on 12 run and were reduced to 39 for six by 6.6 overs. Richard Ngarava made the first assault with taking the opener Rony Talukdar, then Nazmul islam and Tanzib Hassan Sakib joined him with taking the wickets of Brendon King and captain Nurul Hassan in quick succession for a duck and eight runs respectively.
Dushan Hemantha did the massive damage at the middle taking three wickets when Shamim Hassan, Mohammed Nabi Mahadi Hassan all three batters were trapped Lbw on 39 runs. After that Pakistan’s star batter, Babar Azam, and Afghanistan's Azmatullah Omarzai composed a valuable seventh-wicket partnership, contributing 87 runs to guide Rangpur Riders to their first win.
Babar Azam, the Pakistani experienced batter, who reached Dhaka on Monday accompanied by Afghan all-rounder Omarzai scored unbeaten 86 runs in seventh wicket partnership when Rangpur Riders were struggling with losing six wickets for 39 runs.
Babar and Omarzai brought the Riders to winning target without any further damage.
Babar, who arrived Dhaka just before the day of his first match for Rangpur, played the match winning innings of unbeaten 56 off 59 balls with six fours when Afghan all-rounder Omarzai accompanied him with 47 off 35 balls with a couple of boundaries and three sixes.
