BPL Qualifier 2 Review: Johnson Charles and McCullum power Rangpur into the finals

Rangpur Riders who finished at no. 4 in the league stage of the Bangladesh Premier League pulled off another upset in Qualifier 2 as they beat Comilla Victorians by 36 runs to make their way into the final of the tournament. If it was Chris Gayle in the last match, this time around it was another West Indian Johnson Charles who rose to the occasion and scored a scintillating hundred at the top of the order to guide Rangpur to a huge score of 192.

The right-hander found an able partner in McCullum who for the first time in the tournament looked in good touch and smashed 78 off mere 46 balls with 9 sixes and just one boundary. Charles and McCullum added 151 runs for the second wicket after Chris Gayle was dismissed early by the young off-spinner Mehidy Hasan. Each one of the Comilla bowlers except Hasan Ali travelled around the park while the duo was at the crease.

Hasan who finished with impressive figures of 4-0-23-1 eventually broke the partnership on the last ball of the 19th over by disturbing the furniture of McCullum, but it was too late by then as the damage had already been done.

A 190 plus total was never going to be easy to chase down in a high-pressure game. Comilla, however, got off to a very good start as they raced to 50 inside the first 5 overs without losing a wicket.

However, the Rangpur bowlers didn’t panic and kept pitching the ball in the right areas and they ended up reaping the rewards of it soon as they were able to get back to back wickets just before the end of the power-play to push Comilla on the back foot.

Comilla couldn’t quite catch up after that as the wickets tumbled at regular intervals. None of the partnerships could extend for a significant duration and at the end, the required run rate just went out of the hands.

Rubel Hossain and the Sri Lankan left-arm seamer Isuru Udana were the two most effective bowlers for Rangpur as they shared 5 wickets between them in 8 overs giving away just 58 runs. The English all-rounder Ravi Bopara chipped in with a couple of wickets too. Johnson Charles for his hundred was declared the man of the match.

Brief Scores:

Rangpur Riders: 192/3 in 20 overs (Johnson Charles 105, Brendon McCullum 78, Hasan Ali 23/1)

Comilla Victorians: 156 all out in 20 overs (Liton Das 39, Tamim Iqbal 36, Rubel Hossain 34/3)