Incredible Sunny halts Dhaka’s winning streak
Photo - BCB
|| CF Correspondent ||
Rajshahi Kings put a brake on Dhaka Dynamites’ winning streak, stunning them by 20 runs at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium on Wednesday.
Left-arm spinner Arafat Sunny was at the fore, with a bowling figure for 4-1-8-3 that restricted Dhaka to 116 for nine, in reply of Rajshahi Kings’ moderate 136 for six and thereby scripted Dhaka’s first victory in the tournament after four matches.
Sunny was ably supported by skipper Mehidy Hasan Miraj’s two for 18 while pacers Mustafizur Rahman and Ishuru Udana came up with handy support with economical bowling.
Amid their roller-coaster ride in BPL, Mehidy got the taste of beating reigning champions Rangpur Riders and runners-up Dhaka Dynamites in his first stint as a captain in senior level.
Coming as clearly underdog in the match following their failure to overhaul Khulna Titans’ meager 128 just 24 hours ago, Rajshahi Kings batsmen barring Marshall Ayub remained vulnerable but their bowlers amended the batsmen’s failure to script one of the most fascinating victories for them.
Captain Mehidy however gave the side a belief that they could even win the match with such moderate score when he removed Sunil Narine (1) and then when Ishuru Udan’s pinpoint yorker uprooted the middle stump of Hazratullah Zazai (6), Rajshahi Kings sensed something different. Udana celebrated the wicket pointing his finger to his jersey where his mother name was imprinted.
Arafat Sunny appeared in the stage and wrecked such havoc in Dhaka’s batting line up that the tournament favourite’s first defeat was almost ensured.
His key weapon the arm delivery was instrumental in his massive success. In his straight fours overs, Sunny took the scalp of Andre Russell, Shakib Al Hasan and Rony Talukdar to make Dhaka five down for 53 in 11th over.
Russell’s promotion as No.3 batsman backfired, considering his shortcomings against the spinners and the West Indian who scored 11 was deceived by the delivery that he expected to turn. Rony Talukdar (14), after struggling in the crease was undone by an arm-ball while Shakib Al Hasan (13) holed out to deep midwicket against a tossed up delivery.
Dhaka pinned hope on Keiron Pollard who has the ability to bail the side out of the danger. Pollard also found support in Mohammad Naim as the two bide their time in the crease to understand the nature of the wicket. However Rajshahi dented the hope by removing both of them in the space of four balls before they got them settled in the crease.
Nurul Hasan Sohan made 21, the highest score for the side, only to reduce the margin.
Rajshahi made two changes in the squad bringing in Shahriar Nafees and Marshall in the place of Mominul Haque and Soumya Sarkar and those two replacements were instrumental in their victory.
As Mehidy failed to give the side a rapid start, Nafees and Marshall Ayub held together the innings by sharing 75 runs for the second wicket. Considering the nature of the surface it was a partnership to savour but the other batsmen of Rajshahi failed to capitalize on it.
Marshall Ayub, playing his first BPL match since 2013, struck 45 off 31, smashing three fours and two sixes while Shahriar Nafees made 25 off 27 with three fours.
Sunil Narine ( three for 19) removed both of them in three balls to spark the collapse and the rest of the Rajshahi batting line up surrendered meekly to squander the chance of making big total. But the bowlers compensated it at the end.
