BPL 3 Qualifier 2 Review: Rangpur Riders v Barisal Bulls, Bulls win a trilling contest to enter the final

The big news for the day was that Chris Gayle had left Dhaka and was on his way to Melbourne for the Big Bash League. Hence, Seekkuge Prasanna came in for the Jamaican for the Barisal Bulls. Shakib Al Hasan won the toss for Riders and decided to bat first in the knock-out match.

Lendl Simmons and Abdullah Al Mamun started strongly for the Riders and capitalized on anything loose. Taijul Islam was taken to the cleaner by Simmons who hammered him for a six and 2 fours in the 6th over. Al Mamun was the first to go after scoring 20 off 23 balls. The 11th over finished with the wicket of Soumya Sarkar with the score on 70/2. Simmons soon brought up his second fifty off the tournament looking in superb touch. Shakib’s knock 13 off 10 was ended by Al-Amin Hossain with a yorker.

Simmons knock of 73 off 57 was ended by Mohammad Sami as the West Indian tried to scoop the ball in the fine-led region. His knock included 9 fours and 2 sixes. At 126/4 and 3 overs remaining, the Riders needed a cameo and Darren Sammy answered his team’s call in fine style. He smashed 23 off 10 including 3 fours and 1 six and enabled his team to reach a total of 160/8 at the end of 20 overs. Kevon Cooper proved expensive conceding 39 off 4 overs but picked up 4 wickets as batsmen tried to hit out of the park at the end of the innings.

The Barisal openers, Rony Talukdar and Seekkuge Prasanna, were dismissed within the first 3 overs leaving the middle order with all to do. Sabbir Rahman showed positive intent and hit some crisp boundaries to keep the scoreboard ticking in the company of Shahriar Nafees. At the end of 10 overs they took the score to 69 with Nafees on 22 and Sabbir on 33. Thisara Perera, who was held back by Shakib, was brought on to bowl the 11th over in which he conceded 11 as the batsmen looked to get a move on.

The next over from Sammy produced 13 runs and set the ball rolling for the Bulls. Sabbir, looking in ominous mood, brought up his 50 off just 34 balls and continued hammering the bowlers. With 54 needed off 36 balls and Nafees also looking settled on 36, the game was in favour of the Bulls. Sabbir hammered Saqlain Sajib for a maximum over long-off and brought the equation down to 43 off 30. The right-hander not only hit the ball cleanly but also took the ones and twos to good effect.

The next over bowled by Arafat Sunny was a dramatic one with the first 3 balls producing only 3 runs, post which Nafees hit a four, followed by a top-edged slog for a single that landed in no man’s land with 3 fielders converging and finished with a huge six over deep mid-wicket by Sabbir. Nafees was run out on 44 off 40 in the next over bowled by Shakib. The skipper conceded only 5 in the last over of his spell and got the equation down to 24 off 18.

There was still time for some drama though as Sammy first dropped a relatively easy catch of Sabbir and later in the over took an absolute stunner on the boundary line to end the right-hander’s brilliant knock on 79 off 49 which included 7 fours and 3 sixes. Literally a millimetre in front of the ropes, Sammy nearly fell over but managed to pull all his weight on his left leg to miraculously stay inside the field of play.

The West Indian was given the responsibility to bowl the penultimate over with equation being 19 off 12. The first 4 balls went for 5 and produced the wicket of Mahmudullah, followed by a six from Rayad Emit and a dot ball. With 8 needed off the last over, Perera bowled the first one down the leg side attempting a yorker which turned out to be a full toss that was neatly clipped by Cooper for 4. A double off the next ball made it easy and the West Indian smashed the winning runs with a boundary to start the celebrations.

Brief Scores:

Rangpur Riders: 160/9 in 20 overs (L Simmons 73, K Cooper 4/39)

Barisal Bulls: 163/5 in 19.3 overs (S Rahman 79; A Sunny 1/18)

Man of the Match: Sabbir Rahman (Barisal Bulls)