Shakib show keeps Rangpur Riders on top

DE Sports Desk
Shakib Al Hasan’s all-round performance helped table-toppers Rangpur Riders clinch a comfortable win against Durdanto Dhaka on Tuesday.
Shakib was the player of the match, scoring 34 runs with the bat and picking up three wickets to beat Dhaka by 60 runs and keep Rangpur on top of the table. This was Rangpur’s fifth win in eight matches while Dhaka suffered their fifth straight defeat. Dhaka lost their way early in the chase and were eventually bundled out for 115 runs.
Their top order had no answer to Mahedi Hasan’s spin bowling. The offspinner picked up two early wickets and reduced Dhaka to 4/2 inside the fourth over. Dhaka could never recover from that.
Opener Mohammad Naim played a 44-run innings from 31 balls but that was never going to be enough in the massive chase. All he did was to reduce the losing margin. The southpaw hit three boundaries and three maximums in his innings.
Other than Naim, only two recognised batters – Alex Ross and Irfan Shukkur – reached the double-digit mark. Fast bowler Taskin Ahmed was the only other batter to go beyond the 10-run mark.
Ross played a sluggish 13-run innings from 18 balls at the top of the order. Taskin hit two sixes to score 15 from 8 balls to take Dhaka’s score beyond 100.
Apart from Shakib’s three-for, three other bowlers – Mahedi, Salman Irshad, Hasan Mahmud – bagged a brace each for the Riders.
Earlier, Rangpur Riders posted 175/4 riding on a collective effort from their batters. Azmatullah Omarzai was the only batter who couldn’t reach the double-digit mark for the Riders.
They had an aggressive start thanks to their openers Rony Talukder and Babar Azam. Rony was the primary aggressor between the two hitting boundaries early in the innings. He bagged 39 runs from 24 balls smashing six boundaries and one maximum before departing.
Top scorer Babar played his usual way scoring 47 off 43 deliveries. He hit five boundaries in his final match in the BPL this season.
To everyone’s surprise Shakib Al Hasan came to bat at three. And he played a proper T20 innings, if anyone’s wondering.
He was clearly struggling early in his innings though, so much that even the crowd cheered when he middled the ball for a single in the 11th delivery that he faced. But he cut loose soon after. He hit his first boundary in this BPL in the 15th delivery that he faced. And in the next over of Chaturanga de Silva, he smashed two sixes over the mid-wicket area. The southpaw did ride on his luck for the first maximum though as he was dropped by Gulbadin Naib. But his stay at the crease didn’t last much longer after that. He hit a maximum off Mosaddek Hossain and was caught at the same area in the very next over scoring 34 off 20 balls.
One could question why Mosaddek didn’t opt for any pacer while Shakib was at the crease as he is still struggling with his eyes. Well, only Mosaddek could answer that.
Rangpur skipper Nurul Hasan Sohan and Mohammad Nabi played useful cameos to eventually take their team to 175. Nabi was a bit slow early in his innings though. But the final over by Taskin saw him hitting three sixes to take his individual score to an unbeaten 29 off 16 balls. Sohan remained unbeaten on 16 from 10 deliveries.
For Dhaka, skipper Mosaddek Hossain bagged a brace while Arafat Sunny and Sabbir Hossain picked up a wicket each.