BPL 2017, Match 28 Review: Rangpur Riders steal a last-ball finish yet again against Chittagong Vikings

Rangpur Riders, once again, stepped onto the field all guns blazing and overhauled Chittagong Vikings to clinch 2 precious points on the rankings table. The encounter was once again a closely-contested affair, going down to the very last ball of the innings. With this victory, Rangpur Riders remained steady at the fifth position on the rankings table, while Chittagong Vikings slipped further down into the abyss of the lowest foothold in the points table.

Having won the toss, Rangpur Riders’ captain, Mashrafe Mortaza put the Chittagong Vikings in to bat first. The opener, Luke Ronchi was unable to repeat his hard-hitting from his previous match but his partner, Soumya Sarkar managed to give his team a solid start with his knock of 30 runs, albeit a bit shakily. Keeper, Anamul Haque was once again dismissed cheaply, exposing the middle-order to the Rangpur bowling attack.

In the previous match, it had been Sikandar Raza who’d pulled out the big guns when his team needed him to. This time around, it was Stiaan van Zyl. He smashed 3 boundaries and 4 mammoth sixers to bring up an individual knock worth 68 runs off just 40 balls.

Raza chipped in with a significant contribution of 22 runs off 19 deliveries, along with Najibullah (25). The lower order, however, wasn’t able to finish off the innings in the way Chittagong would’ve expected at the time when van Zyl was batting.

All bowlers, barring Sohag Gazi, picked up a wicket apiece, with almost all of them proving to be quite expensive at economies hovering about 9.0. Chittagong Vikings ended their innings with a score of 176/7, which was not up to the mark, considering the fair bit of dew on the grounds in the second innings.

Thisara Perera scripts a last over victory for Rangpur Riders

The opening stand for Rangpur Riders was moderate for their expectations with Brendon McCullum (15) and Chris Gayle (33) pacing their innings as the game progressed but failing to stay on the crease for long enough. Captain Mortaza led from the front as he piled on 42 runs off merely 12 balls. His innings saw the opposition bowlers get hit all around the park for 4 boundaries and 3 sixers. Following suit, came keeper Mohammad Mithun who scored a fast-paced knock of 44 runs off 29 balls.

At the end of 15 overs, Rangpur were in need of 49 runs off the last 30 balls, which seemed to be a pretty much straightforward task. It was Thisara Perera who single-handedly hauled his team to the path of victory with his innings of 28 runs off 14 balls.

With 14 runs needed off the last over, Taskin Ahmed gave Chittagong a ray of hope as he picked up the wickets of Nahidul Islam and Shahriar Nafees off consecutive deliveries. However, he could not see his side home as he conceded a wide on the last ball of the innings, giving Perera the opportunity to seal the match with a staggering six.

Brief Scores:

Chittagong Vikings- 176/7 in 20.0 overs (Stiaan van Zyl 68; Thisara Perera 1/35 in 4 overs)

Rangpur Riders- 180/7 in 20 overs (Mohammad Mithun 44; Al-Amin 1/29 in 4 overs)

Player of the match- Thisara Perera