BPL Match 31 Review: Mashrafe Mortaza takes Rangpur Riders home in a close finish

It was a clash between two mid-table teams and Rangpur Riders clinched it on the back of some fine batting performance by two of their overseas signings Brendon McCullum and Ravi Bopara and their skipper Mashrafe Mortaza. With this win, Rangpur Riders also maintained their no. 4 position in the table, while Sylhet Sixers remain stuck at 5.

The target set by Sylhet was quite a stiff one and they did their chances no harm by dismissing Chris Gayle early, who in his attempt to go big in the first over itself mistimed one into the hands of mid-on. McCullum walked in at 3 and he along with the other opener Ziaur Rahman led Rangpur’s charge.

Ziaur was the aggressor in that partnership as he smacked 5 fours and a couple of sixes to guide his team past the 60-run mark inside the powerplay. However, he played one shot too many and ended up being stumped in the 6th over at the individual score of 36.

McCullum walked in at 3 and he along with the other opener Ziaur Rahman led Rangpur’s charge. Ziaur was the aggressor in that partnership as he smacked 5 fours and a couple of sixes to guide his team past the 60-run mark inside the powerplay. However, he played one shot too many and ended up being stumped in the 6th over at the individual score of 36.

McCullum played sensibly after that and stitched another couple of brief partnerships with the wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Mithun and Ravi Bopara to keep his team on course with the chase, but he lost his wicket at the wrong time when he actually needed to up the ante.

Sylhet turned the screws on after McCullum got out and they managed to get another quick wicket in the form of Samiullah Shenwari which pushed Rangpur on the back foot.

Mashrafe Mortaza joined Bopara in the middle and the duo added 20 runs in the next 11 balls to keep up with the required run rate, but a rocket throw from Babar Azam on the 3rd ball of the 18th over resulted in Bopara’s dismissal leaving Rangpur in complete tatters as they didn’t have any recognized batsman left at that crucial juncture of the game.

However, Mortaza took it upon himself to make sure Rangpur didn’t remain short of the target as he launched two mighty hits into the stands towards the end to get his team over the line with two balls left in the innings.

Earlier Mortaza won the toss and decided to insert Sylhet which was a surprising move as Rangpur Riders had lost all the previous three games in which they had bowled first.

Sylhet lost a couple of early wickets up top and then lost another one in the 8th over which forced them to consolidate. Babar Azam and Sabbir Rahman played sedate, but solid knocks and made sure that Sylhet were in a position to accelerate later.

While Babar scored 54 off 37 balls, Sabbir scored 44 off the same no. of balls, but the platform that they laid allowed Ross Whiteley and Tim Bresnan to go big in the death as they added 23 runs in the last 9 balls to propel Sylhet to a 170 plus score which however didn’t prove to be enough eventually.

Brief Scores:

Sylhet Sixers: 173/5 in 20 overs (Babar Azam 54, Sabbir Rahman 44, Nazmul Islam 18/3 in 4 overs)

Rangpur Riders: 177/6 in 19.4 overs (Brendon McCullum 43, Ziaur Rahman 36, Abul Hasan 25/1 in 4 overs)