Chittagong Royals have emerged as the sole leaders in the 12th edition of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) T20 cricket.
Chittagong defeated Rajshahi Warriors by 2 wickets in the 19th match of the tournament on Friday, January 9. With this win, Chittagong has risen to the top of the table with 10 points from 7 matches. Rajshahi is in fourth place in the table with 8 points from 6 matches.
After losing the toss at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium, Rajshahi Warriors’ two openers Tanjid Hasan and Mohammad Wasim started with 21 runs. Then, Rajshahi came under pressure as the team lost 5 wickets for 72 runs.
Towards the end, Rajshahi’s batsmen could not play any big innings. Even there was no big partnership in the middle or lower order. SM Meherab and Akbar Ali put on the second-highest partnership of 19 runs for the sixth wicket.
Tanjim Hasan Shakib and Sandeep Lamichhane put on 17 runs off 11 balls for Rajshahi to post a modest total of 128 runs for 5 wickets in 20 overs.
Wasim and Meherab scored the highest 19 runs for Rajshahi. Akbar also scored 17, Mushfiqur Rahim 15 and Tanjim scored 14 not out.
With the ball, Chittagong Royals’ Amer Jamal took 3 wickets, Shariful Islam and Tanvir Islam took 2 wickets each.
In reply, after a 24-run start, Rajshahi lost their fourth wicket for 28 runs thanks to the work of pacer Binura Fernando and spinner Meherab.
Pakistan’s Hasan Nawaz put on 40 runs off 40 balls for the fifth wicket with captain Mahedi Hasan and 35 runs off 34 balls with Asif Ali for the sixth wicket to bring Chittagong back into the fight. Although Mahedi was out for 28 and Asif for 27, Hasan kept Chittagong’s hopes of victory alive.
Chittagong needed 10 runs in the last over to win. Hasan scored 8 runs off the first three balls bowled by Meherb with 1 four. The next two balls were dot, and Hasan gave the team a great victory by scoring the required 2 runs off the last delivery.
Hasan played an impeccable innings of 35 runs off 36 balls with 2 fours. Rajshahi’s Binura took 3 wickets for 18 runs and Meherb took 2 wickets for 25 runs. Chattogram’s Hasan was named man of the match.
In the other match of the day, Noakhali is batting against Rangpur.
