Rangpur Riders’ South African batsman AB de Villiers plays a shot during their Bangladesh Premier League match against Khulna Titans in Mirpur on Tuesday. – BCB photo
Rangpur Riders’ front three batsmen – Alex Hales, Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers – finally clicked together and sank Khulna Titans by six wickets in their Bangladesh Premier League match in Mirpur on Tuesday.
Both Gayle and Hales struck their respective first fifty of the season, making an identical 55 runs while de Villiers struck 41 off 25 balls as Rangpur cruised to 183-4 in 19.3 overs after Khulna posted 181-6 in their stipulated overs.
The defeat, Khulna’s seventh in eight matches, all but ended their hopes of qualifying to the knock-out phase despite them equalling their highest score of the season.
‘The important thing was winning the match. We were not in a good position and I can’t say we are still in a good position,’ Rangpur skipper Mahrafee bin Murtaza told reporters after the match.
‘We don’t have the similar balance like other teams. We took a lot of risk with the top-order. The time they are at the crease, we are in the match. In the last two matches, someone among them has performed for us,’ he added.
Out-of-sort Nazmul Hossain got some form finally to hit 48 off 35 balls while David Wiese and Brendan Taylor scored 35 and 32 runs respectively to help Khulna put a fighting score but it could not stop Rangpur from posting their successive win.
Hales and Gayle provided Rangpur a strong start, putting 78 runs within eight overs before Khulna’s Pakistani leg-spinner Yasir Shah, who was playing his first match in the tournament, broke their stand.
Hales, who began to show his return to form in the four-wicket win over Sylhet in the previous match, fell for 55 off 29 balls after clubbing eight fours and three sixes and de Villiers took the charge after his departure.
The South African batting superstar made Gayle watching in awe scoring all but two runs in their 43-run stand before he was trapped leg-before by Khulna captain Mahmudullah.
De Villiers, who hammered three fours and four sixes, unsuccessfully reviewed the decision of on-field umpire after he attempted a reverse sweep and was hit plumb on his front foot.
Gayle did not allow Rangpur feel any pressure and hit Mahmudullah for three sixes in an over to race to his fifty, though he could not finish the job.
Pakistani pacer Junaid Khan put an end to his 40-ball nnings featuring two fours and five sixes in the penultimate over, bringing tournament’s leading scorer Rilee Rossouw to the crease.
Rossouw hoisted Yasir over deep midwicket to take Rangpur to the winning shore with three balls in hand.
‘I haven’t played with these much of big players in any BPL season. I have played with average players all the time. In this year, we had some good local and foreign players. But unfortunately they didn’t click at a time. So we didn’t get good result,’ Mahmudullah said in the press conference.
Earlier, medium pacer Farhad Reza picked up 4-32 to help Rangpur restrict Khulna within gettable score despite a number of batsmen putting some runs to the board.
Nazmul put up two crucial stands with Taylor (32 off 20) and Mahmudullah (29 off 20) of 49 and 56 runs respectively to set up the platform for Weise to play a late cameo of 35 off 15 balls, though it went in vain.
Source: New Age.
