A scintillating bowling effort from Kesrick Williams and a swashbuckling show with the bat from Darren Sammy have fired Rajshahi Kings to a three-wicket win over Chittagong Vikings in the eliminator of the Bangladesh Premier League 2016.
Caribbean pacer Williams grabbed 4-11 from four overs to help the Kings restrict the Vikings to 142-8 after electing to field at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur on Tuesday.
Sammy and his men stuttered early in the chase but the skipper then blasted 55 off 27 balls and guided his team to the win with nine balls to spare.
They will now face the loser of the first qualifier, Dhaka Dynamites or Khulna Titans, in qualifier two to earn a spot in the final.
Rajshahi were struggling halfway into the chase but Nurul Hasan (34 off 28 balls) was scoring freely at one end while wickets tumbled at the other.
Mominul Haque (4) and Afif Hossain (0) walked back in the space of three balls in a sedate first three overs. Sabbir Rahman was given a reprieve but he could add just one more in his extra life before getting out for 11.
Samit Patel (5) and James Franklin (5) soon perished before Nurul, who had much riding on him, also departed through a superb relay catching effort near the ropes to leave Rajshahi reeling on 57-6 in 11 overs.
At that stage Chittagong’s win appeared to be only a matter of time, but Sammy then took charge.
After getting in the middle, he clubbed Mohammad Nabi for three back-to-back boundaries, launched Saqlain Sajib towards the sightscreen and cut Taskin Ahmed powerfully away for another boundary.
With the fate of match still swinging like a pendulum, Sammy pulled things in their favour by smashing Subashis Roy for another hat-trick of fours through the offside. He brought up his half-century off 23 balls with a crisp hit over the head of Nabi.
Bedecking his knock with seven boundaries and two sixes, Sammy found an able partner in Farhad Reza, who cracked three boundaries to stay unbeaten 19 off 11 balls, to seal the win in the penultimate over.
Sajib and Roy took two wickets each for Chittagong.
Earlier, Williams landed a blow in the third over by sending opener Dwayne Smith back for a duck. But Tamim Iqbal (51) and Chris Gayle (44) then paired up for 74 runs to set the Vikings up for a big total.
Williams also caused some trouble for Gayle early on but the Caribbean masterblaster got in the groove once spin was introduced.
He hammered two sixes in successive balls from Mehedi Hasan Miraz before smashing two more off Afif in the next over.
Tamim then shrugged off his initial discomfort and began timing the ball to perfection as the duo lifted Chittagong to 75-1 in 10 overs.
Gayle welcomed Franklin with his fifth six over the cow corner but fell to a catch by Reza two balls later to a harmless full toss. Chittagong then lost their way.
Tamim cracked six boundaries reached his sixth half-century this edition to equal the record for most fifties in a single edition in the Bangladesh Premier League.
Reza then returned with the ball and took out Shoaib Malik (14) and Anamul Haque (11). But it was Williams who bagged the wicket of Tamim and landed a huge blow to their hopes of a late surge.
He picked out Abdur Razzak and Taskin Ahmed for ducks in his last over to complete a memorable performance.
Source: Bd news24
