Riders beat Kings, ensure play-off

Defending champions Rangpur Riders sealed a comfortable four-wicket win over Rajshahi Kings during their BPL 6 match at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury stadium in Chittagong and confirmed a play-off spot on Tuesday.

Chasing 142, Rangpur reached their target with eight balls to spare. 

In-form Rilee Rossouw and AB De Villiers formed a 71-run partnership for the third wicket to ease the pressure during the chase.  Rossouw was the top scorer with 55 off 43 balls while De Villiers scored 37 off 27 balls.

Earlier, Rajshahi managed to score 141 on a good batting track losing eight wickets in 20 overs. Laurie Evans scored 35 but no other batsmen scored big enough to set a challenging total.

All-rounder Farhad Reza took three wickets conceding 30 runs for Rangpur and later he was adjudged man-of-the-match.  

Key Moments

Soumya fails once again 

Soumya Sarker came to open the innings with Johnson Charles for the Kings and yet again the off-form left-hander failed as he made just 14. Soumya has scored just 78 runs in eight innings with an average of 11.14 and strike rate of 97.50 in this tournament so far. 

Shafiul’s Injury scare

Rangpur pacer Shafiul Islam is having a decent season as he picked up 14 wickets from 11 innings so far but he could bowl only three balls on Tuesday. In the eighth over he dived to stop a ball in his own bowling and got hurt that compelled him to get out of the field. 

BPL standing

Rangpur won five matches in a row to take their points tally to 14 in 11 matches and reached the top of the table. Rajshahi - who have 10 points from the same number of matches - must win in their last group match to keep their qualifier hopes alive. 


Rajshahi Kings INNINGS                               R             B

Charles c Mashrafe b Farhad                       12           11

Soumya c Rossouw b Shahidul                   14           16

Mominul  b Nahidul                                        4              2

Evans c Nahidul b Shahidul                           35           31

MIraz  b Nazmul                                               6              4

Jonker c sub (Maruf) b Nazmul                  16           11

Mahmud c Hales b Farhad                            18           24

Qais  c Nahidul b Farhad                                22           20

Sunny not out                                                   1              1

Mustafizur not out                                          4              1

Extras (lb 2, nb 1, w 6)    9

TOTAL (8 Wickets, 20 Overs)       141

Fall of wickets: 1-18 (Charles, 2.3 ov), 2-28 (Mominul, 3.2 ov), 3-62 (Soumya, 8.1 ov), 4-74 (Miraz, 9.4 ov), 5-81 (Evans, 11.2 ov), 6-96 (Jonker, 13.5 ov), 7-136 (Mahmud, 19.3 ov), 8-136 (Qais, 19.4 ov)

Bowling 

Nazmul Islam 4-0-39-2, Mashrafe Mortaza 4-0-25-0, Farhad Reza 4-0-30-3, Nahidul Islam 3.3-0-14-1, Shafiul Islam 0.3-0-3-0, Shahidul Islam 4-0-28-2                                             

Rangpur Riders INNINGS                              R             B

Gayle c Soumya b Miraz                               10           14

Hales b Qais                                                   16           15

Rossouw b Rabbi                                           55           43

AB de Villiers c Miraz b Sunny                     37           27

Mithun not out                                                 4              6

Nahidul not out                                                11           7

Extras (lb 5, w 7) 12

TOTAL (4 Wickets,18.4 Overs) 145

Fall of wickets: 1-13 (Gayle, 2.4 ov), 2-54 (Hales, 8.3 ov), 3-125 (Rossouw, 15.4 ov), 4-127 (Villiers, 16.4 ov)

Bowling 

Mehidy Hasan Miraz 4-0-24-1, Arafat Sunny 3-0-29-1, Mustafizur Rahman 3.4-0-33-0, Qais Ahmad 4-0-29-1, Kamrul Islam Rabbi 4-0-25-1

Riders won by 6 wickets

MoM: Farhad Reza (RR)