Rangpur Riders’ English all-rounder Ravi Bopara (C) celebrates one of his three wickets with wicketkeeper Mohammad Mithun during their Bangladesh Premier League Twenty20 match at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Saturday. — New Age photo
Rangpur Riders provided a dominating performance to finish at the top of the league-stage points-table of the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League when they beat Comilla Victorians by nine wickets in Mirpur on Saturday.
Rangpur bowlers showcased yet another phenomenal bowling display against Comilla in this tournament as Ravi Bopara claimed 3-7 while Mashrafee bin Murtaza and Nahidul Islam took two wickets each as Comilla were all out for just 72 runs in 16.3 overs.
Rangpur’s two heavyweight foreign recruits – Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers remained unbeaten on 35 and 34 runs respectively as they comfortably reached 76-1 in 9.3 overs to notch their sixth consecutive win in the tournament.
Despite conceding a massive defeat against Rangpur, Comilla finished second in the points-table with 16 points, the same as Rangpur and the teams will now face each other in the first qualifier on Monday.
Earlier Comilla had a disastrous start, as the Rangpur bowlers tore apart Comilla top-order to reduce them to 23-5 in the power-play after they opted to bat first.
Off-spinner Nahidul struck only in the second ball of Comilla innings and dismissed Tamim Iqbal for naught before he got rid of Anamul Haque who made five runs to continue his woeful run in the tournament.
Mashrafee joined in the act, handing Comilla skipper Imrul Kayes a golden duck before Shamshur Rahman and Thisara Perera were dismissed cheaply after making 12 and three runs respectively.
Ziaur Rahman and Liam Dawson (18) tried to gather some momentum by adding 33 runs for the sixth wicket before man-of-the-match Bopara removed Ziaur as one of his three victims after he made highest 21 off 25 balls.
After Ziaur’s dismissal, Comilla once against saw a collapse and lost their remaining wickets in a quick succession to get all out under the 100-run mark for the second time in the tournament, both against Rangpur.
Comilla previously were bundled-out on 63 against Rangpur in the first leg with Mashrafee claiming 4-11 and Rangpur eventually winning that game by same margin, nine wickets in Dhaka on January 8.
Rangpur lost Mehedi Maruf (five) in the second over after BPL debutant off-spinner Sanjit Saha dismissed the opener which remained Comilla’s only success as Gayle and de Villiers struck some blazing shots to guide Rangpur to an easy chase.
Gayle smashed three fours and two sixes in his 30-ball innings while de Villiers hit four fours and two sixes in his blistering 22-ball innings that saw Rangpur secure a commanding win over Comilla.
Source: New Age.
