Rangpur Riders finally secured their place in the top four after a thrilling victory against The Dhaka Dominators. Today, both teams faced off at Sher-E Bangla Stadium, where Rangpur Riders beat Dhaka Dominators by two wickets with three balls in hand.
Toss: Nurul Hasan Sohan, the captain of Rangpur Riders, won the toss and decided to bowl first.
Dhaka Dominators had a nightmare starting the innings
Losing the toss, Mohammad Mithun and Soumya Sarkar came into the pitch to start the batting innings for Dhaka Dominators. But they had an abysmal start for the team. Dhaka Dominators lost the first wicket in the very first over as Mohammad Mithun departed the pitch after being run out. Dhaka lost their second wicket in the following over.
This time, Soumya left the crease after scoring only three. Skipper Nasir Hossain also failed to make a good impact in the top order. Before losing the wicket to Azmatullah Omarzai, he picked up only two runs.
The middle order tried hard
Due to Rangpur’s aggressive bowling, Dhaka’s top order was totally destroyed. But Abdullah Al Mamun, Alex Blake, and Ariful Haque fought for their lives to tackle the disaster.
Abdullah Al Mamun and Alex Blake made a partnership of 29 runs for the team. However, Alex Blake lost his wicket after adding 18 runs. Abdullah Al Mamun also couldn’t score more than 23 runs. Ariful Haque, on the other hand, contributed 29 before leaving the pitch. Relying on their runs, Dhaka Dominator ended their innings with 130 runs.
Rangpur lost some early wickets but recovered well
Chasing the small target, Rangpur Riders lost two early wickets. Mohammad Naim and Mehedi Hasan failed to get runs for the team. But Rony Talukdar made a fantastic partnership with the skipper, Nurul Hasan, to ease the pressure.
Together they added 93 runs on the scoreboard. Nurul Hasan was more aggressive than Mohammad Naim. With three sixes and seven fours, Nurul Hasan smashed a half-century in 20 balls. However, the skipper stopped after scoring the highest 61 runs for the team.
On the other hand, Rony Talukdar added 34 runs. But Dhaka Dominators made the match more competitive when Nasir Hossain picked up two wickets in the 19th over. It seemed Dhaka could tie up Rangpur before the target. But Azmatullah Omarzai and Haris Rauf were calm enough to chase the target. In the end, Rangpur Riders won the match by two wickets and booked their place in the top four.