Rangpur Riders’ South African batsman AB de Villiers celebrates his hundred against Dhaka Dynamites during their Bangladesh Premier League Twenty20 match at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram on Monday. — BCB photo
South African recruit AB de Villiers struck a blistering hundred as Rangpur Riders outplayed Dhaka Dynamited by eight wickets to post their fourth successive win in the Bangladesh Premier League in Chattogram on Monday.
De Villiers hit an unbeaten 100 off 50 balls with eight fours and six sixes and shared 184 runs with Alex Hales in an unbroken third wicket stand as Rangpur raced to 189-2 in 18.2 overs after restricting Dhaka 186-6 in their stipulated overs.
Hales contributed 85 off 53 balls in their epic partnership, the highest in this BPL, which came after Andre Russell dismissed Chris Gayle (one) and Rilee Rossouw (0) off successive deliveries in the second over of the innings.
Hales, who struck a hundred in the last game, began from where he ended clubbing eight fours and three sixes in his innings, with his last boundary off paceman Qazi Anik in the second ball of the penultimate over completing the win.
Dhaka, who have now suffered three consecutive losses, had the chance to make the first use of the pitch after skipper Sakib al Hasan won the toss and opted to bat first, but apart from Rony Talukdar none could make the best use of the opportunity.
Rony made 52 off 32 balls, his second fifty in the ongoing tournament and it took Dhaka nicely poised for a big total with the scoreboard reading 130-2 at the end of 13 overs.
But Dhaka were restricted to the mediocrity on a crispy batting pitch as they could add just 56 runs in the last seven overs with Kieran Pollard being the other significant run-getter with 37 off 23 balls.
Rangpur’s all-rounder Farhad Reza was the star performer in the first innings, claiming 2-32 apart from taking two good catches.
SCORECARD
Dhaka Dynamites innings
H Zazai c Mithun b Farhad 17
S Narine c Farhad b Nazmul 28
Rony c Hales b Shafiul 52
Sakib b Farhad 25
A Russell c Farhad b Mashrafee14
K Pollard not out 37
Shuvagata b Shahidul 1
Nurul not out 3
Extras (lb 6, w 3) 9
Total (six wickets,20 Overs)186
Did not bat: Rubel, Shahadat, Onik
Fall of wickets: 1-35 (H Zazai), 2-51 (S Narine), 3-105 (Sakib), 4-130 (A Russell), 5-151 (Rony), 6-155 (Shuvagata)
Bowling
Nahidul 3 0 22 0
Mashrafee 4 0 30 1
Farhad 3 0 32 2
Nazmul 3 0 35 1
Shafiul 4 0 35 1
Shahidul 3 0 26 1
Rangpur Riders innings
C Gayle c Narine b Russell 1
A Hales not out 85
R Rossouw c Nurul b Russell 0
AB de Villiers not out 100
Extras (lb 1, w 2) 3
Total (two wickets, 18.2 Overs) 189
Did not bat: Mithun, Nahidul, Mashrafee, Nazmul, Farhad, Shafiul, Shahidul
Fall of wickets: 1-5 (CH Gayle), 2-5 (R Rossouw)
Bowling
Shahadat 2 0 16 0
A Russell 3 0 30 2
Sakib 4 0 41 0
S Narine 4 0 45 0
Rubel 4 0 42 0
Qazi Onik 1.2 0 14 0
Toss: Dhaka Dynamites
Result: Rangpur Riders won by 8 wickets
Man of the match: AB de Villiers (Rangpur Riders)
Source: New Age.