Barishal reach final beating Rangpur by 6 wickets
Shamim Hossain’s scintillating innings went in vain as Fortune Barishal have beaten Rangpur Riders by 6 wickets in the second qualifier match to reach the final of Bangladesh Premier League (BPL).
Replying to Rangpur’s 149 for seven, Barishal cruised to victory with nine balls to spare riding on unbeaten 47 runs off 38 balls by experienced Mushfiqur Rahim, and two handy innings by Kyle Mayers and David Miller.
Mayers scored 28 from 15 balls and David Miller was unbeaten for 22 off 18 balls.
Barishal wobbled at the beginning of their innings as they lost both openers Tamim Iqbal and Mehidy Hasan Miraz in fourth over bowled by Abu Hider. Although a bit shaky at the start of the innings, Mushfiqur steadied the ship adding 47 runs in the third wicket with Soumya Sarker and 50 runs in fourth wicket partnership with Mayers. As the West Indian departed, Mushfiqur and South African star David Miller took their side home in an unbeaten 32 runs partnership.
Earlier, Fortune Barishal won the toss and elected to bowl first. Rangpur were in trouble from the beginning as in-form Mohammad Saifuddin bagged the wickets of Mahedi Hasan and Shakib Al Hasan in the second over. Losing the wickets in regular intervals, Rangpur were left reeling at 77 for 7 inside the 15 over. Shamim came to the rescue of his team taking Abu Haider with him adding 62 runs off just 31 balls in the eighth wicket partnership.
Shamim Hossain’s attacking innings of 59 from 24 came with 5 boundaries and equal number of 6s. Abu Hider was not out for 12 off nine balls.
Shamim took 26 from the penultimate over bowled by Obed McCoy and scored joint fastest fifty (20 balls) in this edition of BPL along with Shakib Al Hasan. Shamim’s brilliant innings was studded with both unorthodox shots such as scoop, reverse scoop and slog sweeps and orthodox shots like pull, drive and cut. But his innings was not enough to beat the a star-studded Rangpur batting lineup.
James Fuller took three important wickets conceding just 25 in his four overs while Saifuddin picked 2 for 27.
Mushfiqur Rahim was adjudged the player of the match.
Barishal will play against four time champions Comilla Victorians in the final on 1 March.