AB magic propels Riders to the top of the table
Photo - BCB
|| CF Correspondent ||
Defending champion Rangpur Riders rode on AB de Villers brilliant unbeaten century coupled by Alex Hales unbeaten half-century as they defeated Dhaka Dynamites by eight-wicket in the Bangladesh Premier League at Chitagong on Monday.
AB scored 50-ball 100 while Alex Hales made 85 not out as Riders reached 189-2 in 18.2 overs after restricting Dynamites to 186-6 to earn their fourth successive win and their place as table toppers on the back of run-rate.
After a dismal show in the first half of the group phase where they picked only two wins from the opening six games.
AB scored 50-ball 100 with the help of eight fours and six sixes while Hales, who scored unbeaten 100 on the previous game, made 85 not out comprising with eight fours and three sixes to enthrall the crowd of the port city with some scintillating batting display.
Riders were reduced to 5-2, before AB joined Hales to make his presence felt in front of the capacity crowd, adding unbroken 184 runs for the third wicket stand.
Earlier, Riders made a brilliant comeback on the back of disciplined bowling effort in the middle overs to resist Dynamites from posting a mammoth total on the boards despite being comfortably placed at 130-3 after 13 overs.
Hazratullah Zazai(17),Shakib al Hasan (25) and Sunil Narine (28) did get start but failed to translate it into a big score and it was left on Rony Talukdar, who scored his second fifty of the season, to guide the team over the 200 runs mark that never looked to be a hard task considering the placid batting wicket.
Rony and Andre Russel (14) were supposed to guide Dynamites before Mashrafee bin Murtaza removed the latter after Farhad Reza grabbed a stunner by sprinting from the deep after watching a mistimed pull and he throwed himself horizontally and judging the catch to perfection.
It looked to have pumped up the body language of Riders and as a result they started to throw themselves at the ground and when it looked that Talukdar(52) managed to sail the ball over the rope after clearing his front leg to an overpitched delivery and lofts it high and mighty over long-off against Shafiul, tall Alex Hales, who anticipates it perfectly and keeps his eyes on it all through at the boundary as he takes it with a jump over his head and even the momentum on it can't carried it over the ropes.
Kireron Pollard remained unbeaten on 37 runs but Dynamites managed to score only 35runs in the last five overs at the expense of two wickets as Riders bowlers got over them through their line and length with Farhad Reza picking two wickets.
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