Twitter Reactions: Rilee Rossouw and Rahmanullah Gurbaz roast Chattogram Challengers

It was plain humiliation on a cool Dhaka evening on Thursday as the Khulna Tigers got off to a winning start in the tournament. They had some challenges with the ball in the first innings, but they managed to restrict the Chattogram Challengers to a moderate total and with the bat, they burst into life like never before.

Lendl Simmons, having played a game just 24 hours ago in Mumbai, flew back quickly to Dhaka and got a decent start alongside Chadwick Walton. Yet, the duo could only muster 45 runs for the opening wicket and the scoring rate was just over 7. In a bid to bring up that rate, they lost their wickets in a span of 7 deliveries.

Imrul Kayes and Nasir Hossain, despite being the senior-most local members in the side, could not find a way through against a compact bowling performance. The going got tough and the scoring rate wasn’t very impressive with the Challengers heading into the final few overs. Nurul Hossain began a good spell with some boundaries and Muktar Ali cashed in brilliantly towards the end.

Ali struck 4 sixes in his 14-ball cameo and helped the Challengers get to a respectable 144 runs on the board. They did not lose a lot of wickets, but they found run-scoring to be pretty tough on the day. Aminul Islam, Shahidul Islam, Shafiul Islam and Robbie Frylinck picked up a wicket each for the Tigers.

Nazmul Hossain Shanto failed to live up to the early expectations and was dismissed very early in the innings. That did cause a concern initially, but once Rahmanullah Gurbaz kick-started his rampage striking, the side was on safe track. Gurbaz went bonkers as the Tigers scored 77 runs in the powerplay, with 67 of them coming from overs 3-6.

Gurbaz completed a half-century in just 19 deliveries and Rilee Rossouw chipped in with a crucial contribution once he was dismissed. Rossouw stitched a 72-run partnership with skipper Mushfiqur Rahim, where the little man took the anchor’s role and kept watching as Rossouw picked up from where Gurbaz left in his innings.

They chased the 145-run target in just 13.5 overs, which definitely does a huge favour to their net run-rate. Rossouw completed his half-century and remained unbeaten on 64 off 38 deliveries, which won him the player of the match award.

Here’s how Twitter reacted to this performance from the Tigers.