Dhaka Dynamites’ West Indian batsman Evin Lewis celebrates after scoring a half century against Rangpur Riders during their Bangladesh Premier League match at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Tuesday.
West Indian opener Evan Lewis blazed his way to a scintillating half-century as Dhaka Dynamites defeated beleaguered Rangpur Riders by 42 runs in the Bangladesh Premier League in Dhaka on Wednesday to close in on a spot in qualifiers.
Left-hander Lewis scored 75 runs in just 34 balls with three fours and eight huge sixes to help Dynamites post a massive 188-7 before they restricted Riders to 146-8 on the back of Abu Jayed’s 3-20.
Lewis, who scored a century in previous edition of BPL, took on the spinners under his hammer and showed his ascendancy in his first appearance this season.
Lewis and opening partner, Mehedi Maruf provided Dynamites with a blistering start adding 103 runs in 9.5 overs though the departure of Maruf, who made 40 off 31, slowed things little.
Dynamites lost four wickets to be reduced to 129-4 as Soumya Sarkar picked both the openers and Ziaur Rahman got rid of Sekkuge Prasanna and Andre Russell but Sakib al Hasan ensured a good total.
The ace all-rounder scored 29 off balls and got good support from Dwayne Bravo (16) and Mosaddek Hossain (14 not out) to finish well on the base made by Lewis and Mehedi.
Mehedi, who has been a revelation in this tournament scoring plethora of runs with aggressive style of batting, expressed his joy after the match.
Rubel Hossain was the pick of the bowler for Riders with 3-25.
Riders took desperate measures to chase the daunting target by sending their hard-hitting Pakistani Shahid Afridi but young Jayed dismissed him for a duck in the second ball of the innings.
Russell went few steps backward at midwicket to take Afridi’s catch that not only gave breakthrough for Dynamites but seemed to spark them that was evident in the field.
The 23-year old right-arm pacer Jayed also picked in-from Mohammad Mithun and Sakib got rid of Nasir Jamshed and Gihan Rupasinghe to reduce Riders to 43-4 in eighth over.
Riders’ English batsman Liam Dawson got out for 11 off Prasanna and out-of-form Soumya was run out for one to leave their side in wreckage on 46-6.
Zia made a valiant 60 off 43 balls with six fours and three sixes before becoming Jayed’s third victim in the last ball of the innings but it did not made much impact on the result.
Zia and Sohag Gazi, who made 36 off 26, added 87 runs in the seventh wicket just to reduce their defeat margin.
Riders, who started the tournament with a bang winning five out of their first six games, had to face their fourth consecutive defeat that put the progress uncertain.
The win, third in a row for Dynamites, almost confirmed their berth in top four but opener Mehedi was looking forward to ensure the top spot to avoid the eliminator.
‘We want to end the tournament on the top,’ said Mehedi.
‘If we are not at the top we might have to play one more matches but we are looking forward to avoid it,’ he said.
Brief Scores
Dhaka Dynamites 188-7 in 20 overs (Lewis 75, Maruf 40, Sakib 29; Rubel 3-25, Zia 2-22, Soumya 2-27) v Rangpur Riders 146-8 in 20 overs (Zia 60, Sohag 36; Jayed 3-20, Sakib 2-11)
Result: Dhaka Dynamites won by 42 runs.
Man of the match: Evin Lewis (Dhaka Dynamites)
Source: New Age