Rajshahi Kings made light work of a challenging total put up by Sylhet Sixers, winning by five wickets with 12 deliveries to spare in their Bangladesh Premier League match at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium Wednesday.
Batting first, Sylhet made 189/5 thanks to a 31-ball 76-run innings by Nicholas Pooran, supported well by a 45 from 39 balls by Sabbir Rahman.
In reply, Rajshahi were in all sorts of strife at 64/3 after 8.4 overs when Johnson Charles was gone for 39 off 26 balls.
From there, Laurie Evans and Ryan ten Doeschate formed a 100-run partnership (109 off 45 deliveries) to take the Kings close to the target.
Even though they both departed, Christiaan Jonker and Soumya Sarkar finished off the 13 remaining runs required for victory.
Kamrul Islam Rabbi was the pick of the bowlers for Rajshahi with 2/30 off his allotted four overs.
Charles’ missed stumping
Rajshahi made a good start as spinner Arafat Sunny took the wicket of Sylhet opener Liton Das in the last ball of the first over.
Liton struck one six and one four during his six-ball stay.
The start could have been better in the second over if Rajshahi wicket-keeper Charles did not miss an easy stumping chance of the other opener Afif Hossain.
Afif charged down the ground and missed it completely against off-spinner Mehedi Hasan Miraz, but survived eventually.
Two wickets off consecutive deliveries could have created more pressure for Sylhet but Charles missed a sitter.
@dhaka_dynamites suffered their fourth loss in a row as they were defeated by @CtgVikings by 11 runs in their @Official_BPLT20 6 match at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium Wednesday.https://t.co/S30ZHjteOt#DD #CHV #CHITTAGONG #VIKINGS #DHAKA #DYNAMITES #DHAKADYNAMITES #BPL #BPLT20
— Dhaka Tribune Sports (@Sport_DT) January 30, 2019
Pooran smashes six sixes
Pooran played a superb innings in the middle stages to guide Sylhet to a commanding position.
Pooran hit six fours and as many sixes in his innings and remained unbeaten till the end.
An innings with a 245.16 strike-rate by Pooran was a perfect display of power hitting in T20 cricket.
He finished the innings for the Sixers perfectly by smashing two sixes off the last two balls of the innings against Souyma.
Well judged catch by Sabbir
Sabbir took a well judged catch at the boundary to remove Charles who looked dangerous.
Charles was batting on 39 off 25 balls and tried to clear the boundary against Alok Kapali in the fourth ball of the ninth over.
The ball went up high and Sabbir had to run from long on and Pooran ran from deep square leg.
They both went for the catch and almost collided just inside the rope.
Eventually Sabbir took the catch and it was good judgment by him to hold the ball.
A crucial breakthrough for the Sixers.
Evans – Doeschate’s 100-run partnership
Evans, the first centurion in this season’s BPL, has been in great form and he paired with experienced Dutch batsman Ten Doeschate to counter-attack and produce a magnificent 109-run partnership off 45 balls.
From a precarious position of 64/3 in the ninth over, they took Rajshahi to 173 in the 17th over, which made the equation less than a run-a-ball from there.
Ten Doeschate eventually departed scoring 42 off 18 deliveries with three fours and two sixes while Evans went after scoring 76 off 36 balls with 10 boundaries and two maximums.
#Russell becomes third #hattrick-taker in #BPL 6 https://t.co/IlsvKkgzKZ
— Dhaka Tribune Sports (@Sport_DT) January 30, 2019
BPL table
The win takes Rajshahi Kings to 12 points from as many games with six wins and six losses and they move up to fourth place.
Sylhet stay at No 6 with eight points from 11 games and four wins.
38TH MATCH, RKvSS
SYLHET SIXERS INNINGS R B
Liton lbw b Sunny 10 6
Afif c Mustafizur b Miraz 29 25
Roy c Charles b Mustafizur 13 8
Sabbir c Ten Doeschate b Rabbi 45 39
Pooran not out 76 31
Nawaz c Charles b Rabbi 0 1
Kapali not out 10 10
Extras (lb 1, w 5) 6
Total (5 Wickets,20 Overs) 189
Fall Of Wickets
1-10 (Liton), 2-42 (Roy), 3-88 (Afif), 4-141 (Sabbir), 5-141 (Nawaz)
Bowling
Arafat 4-0-48-1, Miraz 4-0-32-1, Kamrul 4-0-30-2, Mustafizur 4-0-31-1, Soumya 4-0-47-0
RAJSHAHI KINGS INNINGS R B
Charles c Sabbir b Kapali 39 26
Zakir c Ebadat b Taskin 7 7
Shahriar c Afif b Kapali 9 13
Evans c Afif b Tanvir 76 36
Doeschate c Pooran b Tanvir 42 18
Jonker not out 8 6
Soumya not out 2 2
Extras (w 7) 7
Total (5 Wickets,18 Overs) 190
Fall Of Wickets
1-14 (Zakir), 2-56 (Shahriar), 3-64 (Charles), 4-173 (Ten Doeschate), 5-177 (Evans)
Bowling
Tanvir 3-0-27-2, Taskin 3-0-34-1, Ebadat 3-0-31-0, Nawaz4-0-43-0, Kapali 4-0-41-2, Nabil 1-0-14-0
Rajshahi Kings won by 5 wickets
MoM: Laurie Evans (RK)
