BPL Round-up: Victorians through to the final, Riders to take on Bulls in Qualifier 2

Gayle played a brief cameo for the Barisal Bulls in their victory over Dhaka Dynamites.

Comilla Victorians defeated Rangpur Riders by 72 runs in the Qualifier 1 of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), and went through to the decider of the tournament, while Barisal Bulls defeated Dhaka Dynamites by 18 runs to move on to Qualifier 2 to clash with the Riders for a place in the BPL final.

Qualifier 1: Comilla Victorians vs Rangpur Riders

Imrul Kayes made a 48-ball 67 with seven fours and two sixes, and Ashar Zaidi played a brisk cameo of 40 from 15 towards the end of the Victorians innings to guide them to a respectable total of 163/7. The overseas players in Andre Russel and Ahmad Shehzad didn’t click on the day as they were dismissed for 3 and 0 respectively.

However, the foreign reserve for the Riders in Thisara Perera bowled beautifully as he claimed a five-wicket haul dismissing Kayes, Mashrafe Mortaza, Russel, Shehzad and Alok Kapali, thereby preventing the Victorians from putting up a big score.

In reply, the Rangpur Riders, loaded with heavyweights such as Lendl Simmons and Darren Sammy, couldn’t put up a fight collectively, as they capitulated for a measly 91 in 17 overs thereby losing the game by 72 runs. Simmons top-scored with 25, followed by Mohammad Nabi who scored 12.

Abu Haider and Ashar Zaidi ran through the Riders line-up picking up 4 wickets each, as they shared the wickets of the Riders’ top five. They returned with figures of 4/11 and 4/19 from their three and four overs respectively. Mashrafe Mortaza and Andre Russel picked up one wicket each.

The Riders never got going, as they lost wickets in heap, and in a strange manner- losing not one but two wickets together, three times in their innings. They lost their first two at 36, the next two at 45 and next two at 62, with the first two heaps coming off consecutive balls.

The match was done already when the sixth wicket fell at 62 in the 12th over.

Brief Scores: Comilla Victorians 163/7 (Kayes 67, Perera 5/26) beat Rangpur Riders (toss) 91 (Simmons 25, Haider 4/11) by 72 runs.

Eliminator: Barisal Bulls vs Dhaka Dynamites

In the eliminator between Barisal Bulls and Dhaka Dynamites, Dynamites sent the Bulls in after winning the toss, and restricted them to a modest total of 135/5. This was despite the initial onslaught by Chris Gayle, and middle-order performances by Sabbir Rahman and Mahmudullah who scored 41 and 37 respectively.

However, the Dynamites found this total to be too much, as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals, and despite some unsettling cameos from Malcolm Waller and Mosaddek Hossain, fell short by 18 runs.

Gayle began in an emphatic fashion for the Bulls as he smashed 31 off just 19 balls with 2 fours and 3 sixes, but was bowled by Mustafizur Rahman in the 10th over with the score 74/2. The Dynamites pulled it back from there, even as Rahman and Mahmudullah kept the scoreboard ticking.

In reply, Kevin Cooper and Al-Amin led early in-roads into the Dynamites’ line-up as they dismissed the top 4 batsmen alternatively. Mohammed Hafeez and Kumar Sangakkara, the two star campaigners for the Dynamites couldn’t make it work today as they were dismissed for paltry scores of 1 and 10 respectively.

Mosaddek Hossain along with Malcolm Waller scored some big hits, as they kept the Dynamites in the hunt, but Taijul Islam struck double-blows for the Bulls as he sent back both of them, and after that, it was just a formality.

This result meant, that Dynamites have been eliminated from the league, while Barisal Bulls and Rangpur Riders would meet in qualifier 2, to decide who would take on the Comilla Victorians in the finale.

Brief Scores: Barisal Bulls 135/5 (Rahman 41, Mustafizur 2/21) beat Dhaka Dynamites (toss) 117/8 (Hossain 26, Al-Amin 3/15) by 18 runs.