Taskin, Ronchi complete Chittagong's turnaround
Rangpur Riders fell short by 11 runs in their chase of 167, despite having clawed their way back into the game with a terrific end-overs display with the ball
Rangpur Riders fell short by 11 runs in their chase of 167, despite having clawed their way back into the game with a terrific end-overs display with the ball
Commentator: Alagappan Muthu
That's all we have for the day game from Sylhet, but the home team will be in action soon, so look out for that.
Taskin Ahmed is the Man of the Match for his 3 for 31. "Honestly, I'm very happy. South Africa was very bad for our side. First game now, I was nervous, But last night, I thought about the matches I did well, I started thinking positively, I had support from my captain and that put me in a good frame of mind. Lucky with the Bopara run-out [ricochet onto the bowler's end stumps off Taskin's boot]. All the time in our warm-ups for the national team, we used to play soccer and that helped.
"Another day where we should have scored 20 more runs. But credit should be given to Malinga, the way he bowled the last few overs. And in the middle also we couldn't have gone hard and lost a couple of wickets," says Misbah-ul-Haq the Chittagong Vikings captain, "But bowlers did a great job for us defending a par score. There were some excellent catches as well. I haven't played enough cricket, I need to spend more time in the middle and the way Ronchi is playing, he gives us time, he puts us ahead of the game most of the time. We do need support from the others though"
"Bopara's run out cost us, and Thisara's wicket cost us. We have to re-think our chasing strategy. And Taskin bowled really well as well," says Mashrafe Mortaza the Rangpur Riders captain. "Bowlers did a good job, still we have to work on our first six and 10 overs game. We can't be as expensive as today. We have Malinga in the death [so that's sorted] T20 matches, we have to work things out in every area, we have to come back hard. It's tough after a loss, but the group we have is professional and we can pick ourselves back up"
5.35 pm They were supposed to win this game having made 50 in only three overs, Forty eight of those runs came off Luke Ronchi's bat. But once the New Zealander fell for 78 off 35 balls, Chittagong Vikings seemed like they didn't want to hit any more boundaries. There were eight sixes and nine fours in the first 10. And only one boundary in the back 10. They ended up making only 166, and that looked gettable - halfway through the chase, they needed only 78 off 60 balls - but then came Taskin Ahmed. He produced a triple-wicket over, breaking a 49-run partnership bowling Shahriar Nafees with a stunning yorker and taking out the other set batsman Ravi Bopara with a run-out. They fell from 105 for 3 in the 13th over to 119 for 7 in the 15th and couldn't recover
"The wicket is conducive to bowl slower balls and cutters and my role is bowling as many as I could," Luis Reece says. "Back at home in England, some wickets do grip, they get tired in the latter half of the season and I'm more than happy to do it out here. We have to work on that as a batting unit [scoring slowly in the back 10]"
Waleed Zahoor: "This was a very much Misbah-esque's Pakistan of 2011-15. They started off well, lost the momentum, ended up with a chaseable total. Started bowling poorly before pulling back the strings and ended up winning by a small margin. Reminded of old Pakistan era."
Subashis Roy, who was in a fiery confrontation with Mashrafe Mortaza earlier, to bowl. Third man up, fine leg back.
Rangpur Riders fell short by 11 runs in their chase of 167, despite having clawed their way back into the game with a terrific end-overs display with the ball