Khulna coast into 3rd place

The Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League’s (BBPL’s) second Dhaka phase kicked off yesterday in Mirpur, with table-toppers Chattogram Challengers winning a low-scoring day match and Khulna Tigers thumping lowly Rangpur Rangers by 52 runs in the night game at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium. 

Khulna skipper Mushfiqur Rahim hit a polished 59 off 43 balls as they posted 182 for seven.

Rangpur were never in the game, being cut down to 97 for seven after 15 overs, before managing to reach 130 for nine in 20 overs. 

Rangpur were bolstered by the inclusion of former Australian all-rounder Shane Watson, who arrived in the country the previous day and was immediately made the team’s third captain in their sixth game, summing up the sad state of their campaign. The loss continued Rangpur’s run at the bottom of the table with five losses from six games. The big win for Khulna, on the other hand, saw them rise to third position with four wins from six games.

Watson’s appearance did little to change Rangpur’s fortunes as the Australian scored just five runs in his debut BPL innings. Mohammad Naim hit a nine-ball 20 and Lewis Gregory top-scored with 34 off 26 balls, but the rest of the Rangpur scorecard made for sorry reading. Khulna pacer Shahidul Islam became the latest local pacer to grab the spotlight as he cut through Rangpur’s middle order with figures of four for 23 in four excellent overs.  

Earlier, Rangpur had won the toss and asked Khulna to bat first, and their strong score was ensured by Mushfiqur’s second fifty of the tournament. He stitched together a partnership of 39 runs for the fourth wicket with opener Nazmul Hossain Shanto, before featuring in a match-defining 62-run fifth-wicket stand with Najibullah Zadran, who scored 41 off 26 balls. Mushfiqur was the sixth wicket to fall in the last over, having hit four boundaries and two sixes. 

A slight silver lining for Rangpur was that ace left-arm pacer Mustafizur Rahman continued to show glimpses of form by picking up three wickets for 28 runs in his four overs.

In the day’s first game, Dhaka Platoon could only muster a sub-par 124 for nine against leaders Chattogram. In reply, Chattogram’s stand-in skipper Imrul Kayes hit a well-paced 53-ball 54 to take the team home with six wickets and eight balls to spare.