DHAKA: Barisal Bulls beat Rangpur Riders by 13 runs in the fourth match of Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) 2015 at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur of Dhaka on Monday.
From their shambolic 15-run for the loss of four top order wickets in just 4-over, the Bulls recovered and posed a challenging target of 156-run losing eight wickets after they were invited to bat first by Riders captain Shakib Al Hasan, who won the toss.
Controlled bowling of Riders saw early success as they chipped down four top order batsmen of Rangpur in just 15-run in 4-over.
However, the sensible batting of middle and late order helped Bulls to amass a score to bowl at. Bulls’ Captain Mahmudullah and Nadif Chowdhury built 82-run partnership in 11.2-over repairing the rather poor start.
Nadif returned to the pavilion scoring 30-run but Mahmudullah went on and hit 51-run off 43-ball. Later, little cameos from Kevon Cooper (21 off 13), Mohammad Sami (15 off 5), S Prasanna (12 off 4) and Taijul Islam (7 off 3) helped Bulls reach 155-run after their 20-over quota.
Shakib Al Hasan and NLTC Perera took three wickets each while Saqlain Sajib took one wicket.
In response, Riders managed to score 142-run losing all wickets in 20-over. Mohammad Mithun scored 55-run off 32-ball while LMP Simmons, Misbah-ul-Haque, Soumya Sarkar and NLTC Perera took 19, 19, 17 and 17 runs respectively.
Kevon Cooper hunted down five Riders wickets while Mohammad Sami and S Prasanna took two and one wicket respectively. Cooper was adjudged player of the match for his heroics.
The fifth match will be between Comilla Victorians v Chittagong Vikings at 2:00pm (local time) and the sixth match between Sylhet Super Stars v Barisal Bulls at 6:45 (local time) on November 24.
Both the matches will be played at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka.
BDST: 2323 HRS, NOV 23, 2015
SR
** Rangpur Riders need 156-run