Nasum Ahmed, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, and Naim Sheikh led the demolition job as Khulna Tigers blew away star-studded Rangpur Riders to win by a massive margin of nine wickets in the eliminator match of the ongoing BPL at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Monday.
Rangpur were bundled out for just 85 runs in 16.5 overs, the lowest by any team in the BPL playoffs after Nasum and Mehidy took three wickets each.
Naim then hit an unbeaten 48 off 33 to clinch victory in 10.2 overs to take Khulna in the second qualifier on Wednesday and, in the process, knocked Rangpur out of the tournament.
Rangpur, looking to end their four-match losing streak, opted to bat first after bringing in foreigners James Vince, Andre Russell, and Tim David for this match.
However, once Soumya Sarkar was run out on the second ball of the match, things went south for the team that had won their first eight matches, as they lost their first five wickets for only 15 runs 鈥攁nother BPL playoffs record.
Even the overseas stars couldn鈥檛 rescue them from the dire straits. Their highest partnership (33) came from the last pair of Akif Javed (32 off 18) and Nahid Rana, where the latter added no runs.
Khulna, despite losing Mehidy on the third ball, cruised to the total thanks to an unbeaten 87-run partnership between Naim (48 off 33) and Alex Ross (29 off 27).
Khulna also roped in Jason Holder and Shimron Hetmyer for this match, but their service wasn鈥檛 required that much.
Nasum, who was adjudged the player of the match for his spell of 3-16, said that the run-out of Soumya has hurt Rangpur badly.
鈥業t was a 180-run wicket. I thought the first run-out put them on the back foot,鈥� Nasum told reporters after the match.听
Nasum also believes 听that they can go all the way after Khulna have won three straight do-or-die matches.
鈥榃e have been playing knockouts. Our first goal was to reach the top four. We will try to win the next one too; we鈥檙e playing with that belief,鈥� said the left-arm spinner.
Rangpur, on the other hand, nosedived spectacularly to find themselves out of the tournament in the first knockout match despite winning the first eight.
Their assistant coach, Mohammad Ashraful, pointed out the departure of all-rounder Khushdil Shah in the middle of the competition as one of their setbacks. He was called in the national camp by Pakistan.听
鈥楴o one could replace Khushdil Shah. The local players haven鈥檛 been able to play that well in the last five matches despite having good starts,鈥� Ashraful said.
鈥榃e hoped that the likes of Mahedi Hasan or Saif Hassan would play an aggressive innings. But that didn鈥檛 happen,鈥� added the former national captain.
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