BPL 4, Match 28, Review: Darren Sammy steals the show for Rajshahi Kings against the Titans

Skipper Darren Sammy’s heroics saw has helped Rajshahi Kings get back to winning note in the last match. Their next task was against the Khulna Titans in the 28th match of the season. The Titans had etched out a narrow 3-run win when the two sides had met earlier this season. It was a new day and the Rajshahi had every opportunity to draw level with the Titans.

Things went well for Rajshahi Kings at the toss as they won the flip of the coin and opted to bat first. They did not tinker with their playing eleven and went in with the same combination of overseas players. The Khulna Titans, too, opted for the same overseas combination for the match.

Coming into the main action, Mominul Haque and Junaid Siddique opened the innings for Rajshahi Kings. As the trend of the season has been, the wicket fell in the 5th over. Khulna Titans skipper Mahmudullah provided the first breakthrough as he caught and bowled Mominul on 12.

The destructive batsman Sabbir Rahman arrived at the crease. The Kings lost the other opener, Junaid Siddique, in the very next over, though. Shafiul Islam struck to send him packing on 16. Samit Patel joined Rahman at the crease. The innings seemed to choke at that stage with runs not easy to come by. Sabbir Rahman’s 18-ball 16 runs was ended by Monir Hossain in the 10th over.

Cooper soon got rid of Umar Akmal (9) in the next over. Patel’s struggling resistance of 23 balls saw him score 16 before becoming Cooper’s 2nd scalp of the match. It was down to one man army Darren Sammy from thereon. The West Indies batsman, who had struck form last match, continued from where he had left. He bludgeoned the bowling line up of Khulna Titans to suddenly overturn the game to its heads.

Sammy reached his fifty in just 26 balls. Despite seeing the wickets fall from the other end, the skipper continued the onslaught. With an unbeaten 71 off just 34 balls with 4 fours and 5 sixes, the insane batting of Darren Sammy saw Rajshahi Kings post a decent 154/8 in 20 overs. The resurgence came after being down and out at one stage with 88/6 in 15 overs.

The Khulna Titans had a poor start to their innings. They lost Hasanuzzaman falling to a run-out and then Shuvagata Hom perishing to Nazmul Islam inside the first 3 overs. Skipper Mahmudullah then joined Riki Wessels at the crease to steady the innings. With 38 runs in the powerplay, they looked like rebuilding the innings well.

The duo put on 47 runs for the 3rd wicket before Darren Sammy struck with the ball in the 11th over. He bagged the key wicket of Wessels. Wessels departed after scoring 37 off 32 balls with 4 fours. Nicholas Pooran was the new man in. Pooran and Mahmudullah then added another 39 runs for the 4th wicket to see the Khulna Titans go past the 100 run mark.

Mehedi Hasan struck in the 14th over to send Pooran back to the pavilion on 28 (12). Pooran hit 3 lusty blows in the stands to ease out the pressure before perishing. Mahmudullah was cleaned up by Abul Hasan in the very next over after scoring a run-a-ball 33. Ariful Haque and Kevon Cooper were the two new men at the crease.

Kevon Cooper departed after scoring 14 off 12 in the penultimate over and the Titans were left with 19 to get off the last over with Taibur Rahman on strike. Farhad Reza took the ball for the Rajshahi Kings. A good over by Reza saw the Titan fetch just 9 runs to give Rajshahi Kings a 9-run win. Ariful Haque remained unbeaten on 25 off 21 balls. Darren Sammy was the star of the night with his fireworks display for sure.

Brief Scores:

Rajshahi Kings: 154/8 in 20 overs (Sammy 71*, Siddique 21, Cooper 2/31, Shafiul 2/53)

Khulna Titans: 1145/6 in 20 overs (Wessels 36, Mahmudullah 33, Sammy 1/8, Nazmul 1/17)