2024-02-10 11:21:15
After the departure of Babar Azam-Brendon King, there was some discomfort in the Rangpur Riders camp. Can the new foreigners come and adapt to the team in the winning circle? Babar’s departure, on the contrary, the strength of the franchise has increased with the bat. They have scored more than 200 for the first time in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League (BPL).
Rangpur won the toss and batted against Chittagong Challengers, one of the fastest teams in the tournament. The team scored 211 runs for 3 wickets in the scheduled 20 overs with Shakib Al Hasan-Nurul Hasan Sohan’s 50s by Reza Hendricks and Jimmy Neesham.
BPL saw the first two hundreds in the 27th match. Earlier the highest was 193. Chittagong made this run against Barisal in Sylhet. Chittagong fielders are responsible for Rangpur’s run flood. Easy catch missed, sure runout missed.
Neesham got a fifty in the first match. The Kiwi all-rounder scored a half-century off just 26 balls. His innings was decorated with 5 fours and 3 sixes. Captain Nurul Hasan Sohan gave great support to Nisham. He was unbeaten on 31 off 21 balls. The duo added 89 runs off just 46 balls.
Rony Talukder-Reza gave Rangpur a great start. The two added 52 runs without losing a wicket in the power play. When Ronnie returned for 24 runs off 17 balls, the pair broke. Shakib came to the crease and took a few balls in the beginning. Then started batting. The world’s best all-rounder scored 27 runs off just 16 balls with 3 fours and 1 six. On this day, Shakib reached the milestone of 7,000 runs in recognized T20Is.
After Shakib, Reza also returned to Sajghar. By that time, this Protea cricketer must have seen fifty. Reza scored 58 runs off 41 balls with 5 fours and 3 sixes. Rangpur did not lose any more wickets after his departure. Neesham-Sohan finished the innings with a great partnership.
Salahuddin Shakeel took maximum 2 wickets for Chittagong. Nihaduzzaman took 1 wicket.