BPL 2017 Match 33 Review: Debutant Qazi Anik helps Rajshahi Kings register an important win

It was a clash between the two teams that were at the bottom of the points table and Rajshahi Kings came out victorious to keep themselves in contention for a playoffs berth. The bowlers played a pivotal role in this much-needed victory for the Rajshahi Kings as they didn’t let the Chittagong Vikings chase down an under par total.

Qazi Anik who was making his debut got into the party straightaway as he finished with a four-for, while the other bowlers chipped in as well with Mustafizur Rahman getting a couple and Usama Mir and the Pakistani veteran Mohammad Sami capturing one apiece.

Chittagong’s chase was pretty lacklustre right from the word go. Luke Ronchi did hit a couple of boundaries on the first three balls at the start of the innings, but played a reckless shot on the 4th ball to give away his wicket.

Soumya Sarkar, who opens for Bangladesh in limited-overs cricket, and Anamul Haque, who also has played for the national team in the past, stitched together a partnership of 30-odd for the second wicket and took the score past 50, but both of them got out in quick succession leaving two new batsmen at the crease.

Stiaan van Zyl and Sikandar Raza consolidated again, but just like Sarkar and Anamul, they too couldn’t stay together for a long time and were separated after adding 32 runs to the total. Chittagong Vikings lost three back to back wickets in a space of 15 deliveries at that stage and were just not able to come back after that.

The required run rate was continuously going up and the batsmen coming down the order were feeling the pressure of upping the ante which was forced them play false shots and the wickets continued to tumble. As it turned out at the end, Chittagong remained far from the target and lost the game by more than 30 runs.

Earlier, the Rajshahi Kings skipper Darren Sammy won the toss and decided to put runs on the board first in this crunch game. They didn’t get off to a rollicking start and were struggling at 3 for 63 at one stage, but the experienced duo of Mushfiqur Rahim and James Franklin played good hands in the middle overs and then Sammy provided the innings the real impetus at the end with some power-packed batting, something he has always been well known for.

Brief Scores:

Rajshahi Kings: 157/6 in 20 Overs (Darren Sammy 40, Mushfiqur Rahim 31, Lusi Reece 33/3 in 3 Overs)

Chittagong Vikings: 124 all out (Stiaan van Zyl 27, Anamul Haque 23, Qazi Onik 17/4 in 3.2 Overs)