Rangpur thrashes Chittagong by 72 runs
Mashrafe-led Rangpur Riders on Friday claimed their fifth victory by 72 runs against table top Chittagong Vikings at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in the port city.
Rangpur Riders post a mammoth total of 239 runs for four in 20 overs thanks to Alex Hales and Rilee Rossouw’s record double tons. It was the first-ever instance of two batters scoring tons in the same innings of a BPL match.
Today’s match was the 30th Match of sixth Bangladesh Premier League (BPL 2019).
Chasing the target of a huge 240 runs, Chittagong Vikings fall 72 runs short. They managed to score 167 runs for eight wickets in stipulated 20 overs.
Vikings’ batter Yasir Ali scored highest 78 runs off 48 balls with six boundaries and three over boundary shots.
Earlier, Chittagong Vikings won the toss and opted to bowl first. Rangpur Riders started the innings losing Chris Gayle just in six runs. The Caribbean batting superstar fell for two. Abu Jayed Rahi, the right-arm pacer of the Vikings, trapped him for lbw.
In the second wicket stand, Alex Hales and Rilee Rossouw posted 180 runs which is the biggest stand in any wicket in BPL.
Heles, the English recruit of the Riders, struck 100 off 48 balls with 11 fours and five sixes. And Rilee Rossouw remained unbeaten for 100 off 51 balls with eight fours and five sixes to his name. Before hitting his first ton in BPL, Rilee hit four half-centuries in his nine previous matches of this year’s BPL.
Along the way of posting 239 for four, the Riders surpassed the previous highest team total of BPL of 217 runs which was scored by Dhaka Dynamites against them in 2013.
After five years, the Riders rewrote the history against the Vikings in their home — the port city of Chattogram—surpassing Vikings’ 214 which was the highest score of the ongoing season of BPL.
In the run-fest in Chattogram, Abu Jayed Rahi took two wickets for the Vikings while Robiul Haque and Sikandar Raza bagged one wicket each. Robiul was the most expensive bowler of the Vikings as he conceded 54 runs in his four overs while Khaled Ahmed leaked 50 runs in three overs.
