Earlier, Rajshahi won the toss and elected to field. Rajshahi made two changes to their playing XI from the previous match as there were no places for seamers Mohammad Sami and Kesrick Williams. And surprisingly, Rajshahi played with only three foreign players. Afridi opened the innings alongside the West Indies’ Evin Lewis and as expected, Dhaka made a flying start. Dhaka crossed the 50- run mark within four overs and mainly, credit should go to Lewis. Afridi (15 off eight balls) was the first batsman to be dismissed as Rajshahi spinner Mehedi Hasan Miraz cleaned him up. Player of the match Lewis continued his aggressive batting at the other end and eventually scored 64 off 38 balls with 10 boundaries and an over-boundary. In the meantime, Miraz picked up another wicket for Rajshahi with a beautiful delivery in the seventh over. After losing Lewis’ wicket, Dhaka’s run rate came down a little bit as they lost the wickets of Shakib (11) and Nadif Chowdhury (six).#BPL2017 #DHAvKHUDHAKA won by 68 Runs DHA201720 RK1331018.2 H.RAHMAN on 1* on * Last wkt out HOSSAIN 1#BPL #BPLT20 #Cricket #BPLSeason5 #Dhaka pic.twitter.com/eL0Hd9OWKM
— BPL T20 2017 (@BPLT202017) November 18, 2017
But the giant West Indian Kieron Pollard once again played a superb innings in the latter part of their innings, helping his side past the 200-run mark. Pollard remained unbeaten on 52 off just 25 balls, hitting five fours and three sixes. Pollard formed a 62-run partnership with Sri Lankan great Kumar Sangakkara (28) for the sixth wicket to enable Dhaka register a huge total. Young pacer Hossain Ali was the best bowler for Rajshahi as he took three wickets giving away 38 runs while Miraz took two wickets. With this win, Dhaka remained at the top of the points table with nine points from six games.BRIEF SCORERajshahi Kings 133 in 18.2 overs (Afridi 4/26, Haider 3/11) lost to Dhaka Dynamites 201/7 (Lewis 64, Pollard 52*) by 68 runs WHAT THEY SAIDDarren Sammy, Rajshahi Kings captainDuring the start of our game we had to enforce two changes. Two of our key bowlers [Mohammad] Sami and Kesrick [Williams] were out. Dhaka [Dynamites] have some good players. They really attacked on us. I thought we fought back in the middle part of the innings by taking wickets. But dropped catches cost us. We dropped four catches in our innings and paid the price. I am going to have serious words with our players in the dressing room. As professional players, our fielding standard is poor. I know nobody drop catches intentionally but at the moment we are not able to catch the ball when it goes to the air. So that is definitely one area we need to improve.Khaled Mahmud, Dhaka Dynamites coachIt was part of our planning to open the innings with [Shahid] Afridi and [Evin] Lewis. We try to figure out the strength of our opponent and according to that we plan our batting order. Initially we want to cash in in the first six overs. That’s why we sent two power hitters at the top. Lewis is a genuine opener but Afridi can also hit cleanly during the fielding restriction. In a T20 tournament it is not possible to fix a batting order. You have to go with the pace of the game in a T20 match. And that’s what we are trying to do. We are trying different combinations according to match situation.Whatttaaay bowling performance by @SAfridiOfficial today in BPL, he took 4 wickets in his 4 overs quota. 11th 4 wicket haul in T20 cricket by Boom Boom. pic.twitter.com/VX5D7zLykH
— Raza Mehdi (@SyedRezaMehdi) November 18, 2017