Mohammad Nabi raised Chittagong Vikings from the dead and led them to 190 before Taskin Ahmed’s career-best T20 figures of 5 for 31 sank the chase.
Nabi hit his maiden BPL fifty off 25 balls, and converted it into his highest T20 score. Nabi clattered six fours and six sixes in front of a sell-out home crowd.
Nabi walked in at 68 for 4 after the fall of Jahurul Islam and added 105 for the fifth wicket with Anamul Haque, who contributed with 50, including four fours and two sixes. Nabi took his time to get his eye in, before gradually shifting gears. He smashed Darren Sammy over long-off for his first six in the 13th over and then sent Sri Lanka allrounder Milinda Siriwardana over cover in the next over. Nabi hit full tilt when he hammered Abul Hasan for four successive boundaries in the 18th over, which eventually produced 20 runs.
Sixteen runs came off the next over in which Nabi was dropped on 60. Anamul, meanwhile, reached his first BPL fifty since 2013. His joy, though, was short-lived as he holed out off the next ball. Nabi, however, hit three boundaries in the last over, propelling his team to 190. They ended up 76 runs off the last five overs.
Rajshahi’s chase never found rhythm, though Mominul Haque and Junaid Siddique added 44 for the first wicket. Mominul got going with four consecutive fours in the second over before becoming Taskin’s first victim in the fifth over. Siddique, Mominul’s new opening partner, who had joined the squad a couple of days ago, made 38 off 28 balls but fell to Grant Elliott when the chase needed a higher gear.
The onus was then on Sabbir Rahman, who had stroked 122 in his previous match against Barisal Bulls. He added a rapid 34 for the third wicket with Umar Akmal, who managed 21 off 12 balls. Sabbir was then dropped on 24 by Mahmudul, but he failed to capitalise, driving early against Imran Khan jnr’s back-of-the-hand delivery and holing out to Tamim Iqbal, who completed a sharp diving catch.
A similar delivery from Imran also accounted for Darren Sammy, who was Rajshahi’s last hope in the chase, in the 17th over.
Taskin, who had earlier taken the wickets of Mominul and Akmal, also accounted for Siriwardana, Mehedi Hasan and Farhad Reza to finish with his maiden five-for in T20s. This meant he became the third Bangladeshi bowler after Al-Amin Hossain and Abul Hasan to take a five-wicket haul in the BPL. Rajshahi eventually fell short of the target by 19 runs.
Source : Ittefaq