Wednesday, April 24, 2024
What was supposed to be a walk in the park, Rangpur Riders turned into a thriller as they took a 131-run chase to the final over and won by only two wickets against Dhaka Dominators in the ongoing ninth edition of the Bangladesh Premier League to ensure their place in the playoffs.
This result knocked Dhaka out of contention for the playoffs and also knocked out Chattogram Challengers.
Rangpur now have 12 points from nine games, while Dhaka sit fifth with six points from 11.
Chasing 131, it seemed like Rangpur was cruising to a win, courtesy of their skipper Nurul Hasan Sohan’s first fifty this season. But they lost six wickets within 22 runs in the latter stage of the innings to create a match out of nothing, but in the end, they managed to keep it together to ensure their place in the final four.
Batting first, Dhaka were rattled early as Mohammad Mithun (5) was run out and then Soumya Sarkar (3) went cheaply before their best batter in this tournament, Nasir Hossain, was gone for two.
But small contributions in the middle from Mohammad Al Mamun (23), Alex Blake (18), and Ariful Haque (29) alongside Amir Hamza’s 15 off 11 in the end took them to 130-8.
In reply, Shoriful Islam removed both Mohammad Naim (0) and Shak Mahedi Hasan (4) within the third over to create some tension, but in came Nurul and ensured that the early jitters were gone.
He and Rony Talukder put together 93 runs for the third wicket as Nurul picked up his fifty off just 31 balls.
Dhaka skipper Nasir then brought the vital breakthrough by getting Rony (34) before Shoriful came back to get Nurul, who scored 61 off 33 balls, hitting seven fours and a triplet of sixes.
But what followed was a collapse as Nasir picked up three more and Amir Hamza the other, resulting in Rangpur requiring seven runs in nine balls with two wickets in hand.
But Haris Rauf and Azmatullah Omarzai kept their cool and took their team to the playoffs.
