BPL 2017, Match 36 Review: Sunil Narine powers Dhaka Dynamites into the playoffs

As the Bangladesh Premier League is reaching its business end, the significance of the matches is increasing more. The 36th match of the tournament which took place between the Dhaka Dynamites and the Rajshahi Kings earlier tonight held a great amount of significance for both the teams. While the former needed to win it to secure a berth in the playoffs, the latter needed to win to remain in contention for the playoffs.

As it turned out, the match ended in the favour of Dhaka as they absolutely thrashed Rajshahi to knock them out of the tournament and also become the third team to qualify for the playoffs after Comilla Victorians and Khulna Titans. The batsmen set it up for Dhaka as they put a huge score on the board batting first. Sunil Narine, who has been a revelation as opener in the last one year or so in all the T20 leagues around the world, played an extraordinary knock and was well complemented by his opening partner from England Joe Denly.

The duo stitched together 129 for the first wicket and laid a wonderful platform for the big hitters like Kieron Pollard and Shahid Afridi to give the innings a rollicking finish which they did with utmost efficiency. Pollard, in particular, went nuts towards the end of the innings and scored at a strike rate of almost 250 to guide Dhaka to a huge score of 205/5.

Shakib’s early blows dented Rajshahi’s chase

While it was a tough ask, Rajshahi were not completely out of it considering they also had a couple of power hitters in the form of Lendl Simmons and Luke Wright with Mushfiqur Rahim and Samit Patel also there in the middle order to provide solidity. It was a batting line-up good enough to chase the target down.

But the scoreboard pressure got to them as they lost wickets right from the word go. The Dhaka skipper Shakib Al Hasan knocked over both Simmons and Wright with his arm deliveries and then got rid of Rahim cheaply too trapping him plumb in front of the stumps to leave Rajshahi tattering at 9 for 3.

Rajshahi needed a pair to get stuck in there and take the game deep to give themselves any sort of chance, but the wickets just kept falling at regular intervals and the game kept going away. Samit Patel looked in good touch and played some crisp, powerful shots, but it was Shakib again who came for his second spell and ended Patel’s resilience to virtually shut the game for Rajshahi.

There were only formalities left thereafter and the Rajshahi tail-enders did well to drag their team past the 100-run mark, otherwise the margin of defeat would have been even more embarrassing. Although Shakib’s bowling figures of 4-1-8-4 were nothing less than majestic, it was Narine who was named the man of the match for his 34-ball 69.

Brief Scores

Dhaka Dynamites: 205/5 in 20 overs (Sunil Narine 69, Joe Denly 53, Qazi Onik 52/2 in 4 overs)

Rajshahi Kings: 106 all out in 18.3 overs (Samit Patel 28, Mominul Haque 19, Shakib Al Hasan 8/4 in 4 overs)

Man of the match: Sunil Narine