Rangpur Riders clinched their seventh consecutive win in the ongoing BPL as they made a superb comeback to snatch an unlikely victory from Khulna Tigers in the last match of the Sylhet phase at the Sylhet International Stadium on Monday.聽
Chasing 186, Khulna needed only 22 from the last three overs with seven wickets in hand. But Mahedi Hasan, Akif Javed, and Mohammad Saifuddin鈥檚 brilliant death-over bowling and a brilliant direct throw run-out from Saif Hassan to dismiss Mohammad Nawaz stole an eight-run win for Rangpur.聽
After losing two wickets inside the powerplay, a 30-ball partnership of 40 runs between Towfiq Khan and Iftikhar Ahmed steadied the ship a bit for Rangpur.
Tawfiq (36 off 30) couldn鈥檛 capitalise on the start he got. But Khushdil flourished in a hundred partnership with his compatriot Iftikhar.聽
Left-handed Khushdil smacked six sixes; four of those came in consecutive deliveries off Nasum Ahmed in the 15th over.聽
The pair added 115 off 57, where Khushdil made 73 off 35. Iftikhar, though, played the anchor role as he made 43 off 36.
Khulna lost Darwish Rasooli in the fourth over, but a 61-run partnership between Mehidy Hasan Miraz, who came in at three, and Naim laid a solid foundation for them in the chase.聽
Important partnerships kept on coming for Khulna as Naim and Afif Hossain added a quickfire 45 off 22 balls.聽
Mahedi Hasan saw both the backs of Naim (58 off 41) and Afif (29 off 15), but by then Khulna were pretty close. Though the off-spinner鈥檚 four-run over in the 18th made things interesting.聽
And that turned the momentum for Rangpur to clinch a superb win to keep Khulna winless in Sylhet.聽
