Rangpur cruise to fifth consecutive win

Rangpur Riders had smooth sailing on Saturday as they cruised to an eight-wicket win over Sylhet Strikers to extend their winning streak to five matches.

Batting first, Sylhet managed 170-2 despite a slow start, courtesy of an unbeaten 85 from Towhid Hridoy and a momentum-shifting unbeaten 55 from Mushfiqur Rahim.

However, Rangpur took the sting out of the chase courtesy of their openers, who put together 100 runs in just 59 balls. Rony Talukder starred with his knock of 66 runs off just 35 balls.

Despite the result, Sylhet currently sit top with 16 points from 11 matches. With the win, Rangpur caught up with Fortune Barishal and Comilla Victorians as they all have 14 points in 10 matches.

On Saturday, with skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza out with injury, Sylhet were led by Mushfiq, who lost the toss and was sent into bat.

Sylhet had a slow start as Najmul Hossain Shanto managed only 15 off 22 balls and Zakir Hasan fell for seven from seven.

But from there, Towhid and Mushfiq put together an unbeaten 111-run stand in 56 balls to take them to 170-2.

Towhid’s innings of 85 took him to the top of the scoring charts as he now has 373 runs in eight innings.

In reply, Rony started attacking the Sylhet bowlers from the start as he and Mohammad Naim brought 59 runs in the powerplay. Rony picked up his fifty off 27 balls before falling to Mohammad Irfan for 66, hitting eight fours and three sixes.

They also lost Naim (45) soon after but Shoaib Malik and Nurul Hasan Sohan took them home with two overs in hand.