BPL 2017, Match 7 Review: Chittagong Vikings register their maiden win

Not very often you get to see a side score 50 runs in just three overs and manage to hit just one boundary in the last 10 overs in a T20 match. But the 7th match of the Bangladesh Premier League witnessed something similar at Sylhet. Chittagong Vikings rode on New Zealand stumper Luke Ronchi’s brilliance with the bat and posted 166/4 in their allotted 20 overs. The Misbah-ul-Haq-led side started on a good note as the openers scored 59 runs for the first wicket before left-handed batsman Soumya Sarkar fell for 7 off 7 balls.

It was a one-man show, as Ronchi smashed seven boundaries and as many sixes on his way to a supreme 78 off 35 balls. A knock that could have drafted him in the Ashes probables list, a few years back. The side reached 100 in less than 10 overs but managed just about 50-odd runs in the last 10 overs.

Veterans held back things

Veteran pacer Mashrafe Mortaza was effective, as he bowled his fours overs, giving away just 28 runs in return for one wicket. Lasith Malinga, too, bowled impressively and gave away just 25 runs in his 4 overs. The Riders had the edge going into the innings break as at one point it looked pretty evident that Vikings will score anything around 190-200. But the game wasn’t over yet.

Rangpur’s chase, Taskin’s triple blow

The chasers started off poorly as they lost two wickets for 20 runs inside 2 overs but Mohammad Mithun’s entertaining 15-ball 23 helped the side get the momentum back. Just when it looked like the Vikings are out of the contest, Taskin Ahmed, who spent the last month chasing the leather in AB de Villiers’ South Africa, bowled a triple-wicket over to turn things around rapidly as Rangpur Raiders slipped from 105/3 to 105/6 in a span of one over. Ahmed got the better of Shahriar Nafees with an outstanding yorker before getting Ravi Bopara run-out with some luck and soccer skills.

Bopara and Nafees stitched a vital stand of 49 runs, with Bopara finding the boundary thrice apart from hitting a maximum in his 38-run knock. Nafees, on the other hand, scored 26 with the help of three boundaries. The chasing side slipped further after Thisara Perera too perished without any meaningful contribution.

The rest of the batters tried their best to put on some digits but the Riders ended up 12 runs short. 22-year-old Taskin bagged the man of the match award for his match-winning figures of 3/31. Vikings are currently at the fifth spot with a win and a loss against their name while the Riders are a notch ahead of them at the fourth position, thanks to a slightly better net run rate.

Brief Scores: 

Chittagong Vikings- 166/4 (Luke Ronchi 78; Ravi Bopara 2/14)

Rangpur Riders- 155/8 ( Ravi Bopara 38; Taskin Ahmed 3/31)