Rangpur Riders 195 for 6 (Rossouw 61, de Villiers 34, Taskin 4-42) beat Sylhet Sixers 194 for 4 (Sabbir 85, Pooran 47*, Mashrafe 2-31) by four wickets
How the game played out
Rilee Rossouw‘s fourth fifty of the BPL season powered Rangpur Riders through the second-highest successful chase in the competition’s history. Farhad Reza’s unbeaten 18 off six balls completed the final-over win for the defending champions’ star-studded team.
Rossouw, whose 35-ball 61 contained nine fours and two sixes, added 63 for the second wicket Alex Hales and 67 for the third with AB de Villiers, who contributed a 21-ball 34 on his BPL debut.
Taskin Ahmed took 4 for 42, with two two-wicket overs that kept Sixers in the game after they had posted 194 for 4 after being sent in. Sabbir Rahman‘s 51-ball 85 set up the big total.
Turning points
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Sabbir and Nicholas Pooran blast 61 runs in the last four overs of Sixers’ innings despite Shafiul Islam conceding only nine in the last over.
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Taskin removes Rossouw and de Villiers in the 14th over, after their third-wicket stand had put Riders in control of the chase.
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Sandeep Lamicchane concedes only three runs in the 16th over, leaving Riders needing 42 off 24.
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Taskin takes two more in the 18th, leaving Riders needing 24 off 12, but Farhad and Mashrafe Mortaza finish the job with three fours and a six between them. Riders win with three balls to spare.
Star of the day
Sabbir scored his first fifty in ten BPL innings, his last half-century coming during the 2017-18 edition. He paced his innings well, picking the right moments to attack and pushing the ball around for ones and twos in between.
The big miss
Rossouw survived three dropped chances and a sure-shot run-out within the first 5.5 overs of the Riders’ chase. Wicketkeeper Jakir Ali dropped him twice on 1 and 12 before a direct hit would have had Rossouw short by a big margin, when he was on 16. Two balls later, Pooran dropped Rossouw’s bunt towards mid-on, and the ball went all the way to the boundary.
Where the teams stand
Both teams started the match with four points from six games. Riders have now climbed into the top three with six points.