BPL 2015 Match # 15 Rangpur Riders Vs Chittagong Vikings played at ZACS Chittagong on 1 December 2015

Rangpur Riders 113/1 (Soumya Sarkar 58*, Jahurul Islam 47) beat Chittagong Vikings 111 /8 (Tamim Iqbal 36, Shakib Al Hasan 2/16, Arafat Sunny 2/27) by 9 wickets

A clinical all round performance Riders thumped miserable Vikings by 9 wickets in a thoroughly one sided match. The home disappointed its expectant fan for second day in succession. With 5 losses from 6 matches their endeavor for BPL3 is almost put paid. On the other hand Riders not only consolidated its position on the top .This almost assured them of the safe passage to the next round. The team looked very lively with the return of its champion all-roundercaptain Shakib Al Hasan after serving one match ban.

Incidentally Riders lost only that match of the six it played. On a slow turning wicket Vikings struggled reaching 111 /8 in their allotted overs as Riders high quality spin attack made life extremely difficult for them. On the same surface Riders openers Soumya Sarkar and Jahurul Islam batted exceedingly well almost winning the match by 10 wickets. Jahurul was the only batsman to get out with victory only few strokes away. Riders scored 113/1 winning the match by 9 wickets.

We do not think Chittagong Viking is a team of all round abilities. True they had the ace left arm pacer Amir and two national new ball bowlers Taskin and Shafiul in their ranks But on low slow turning Bangladesh wickets their spin resources is not strong .Neither their foreign recruits in batting are as good as other teams. Dilshan is way past his prime.

Akmal brothers are not very successful these days in any formats. The team relied almost exclusively on the batting of Tamim whose best was proved not enough. The team batted and fielded poorly and none other than Amir looked like getting wickets. Consequently Vikings lost one but all matches off the six and is virtually out of the tournament.

On the day possibly Tamim also read the wicket wrong. His team was pace heavy on a slowish wicket which favored spin. Riders with four quality spinners Shakib, Sunny Saqlain and Nabi sucked the cream out of Vikings batting. 4 spinners shared 6 out of 8 Vikings wickets as their batting looked like spineless. Poor stroke selection caused demise of top order players Dilshan, Anamul and Kamran Akmal.

Perhaps Umer Akmal was a bit unlucky given out caught behind. Otherwise Shakib, Sunny, Saqlain and Nabi all bowled brilliantly exploiting whatever assistance the wicket had. Only Tamim struggled as lone warrior. But he too fell to Afghan recruit Nabi trying to up the tempo. His 38 could help Vikings reach over 100. But 111/8 in T20 anywhere cannot be considered enough. The body language of Viking players was not at all positive.

Riders were not at all in a hurry. Shakib sent Jahurul as opening partner of Soumya Sarkar. Amir caused some initial worries with his pace and movement but once the initial feel was overcome Riders openers played several delectable strokes all around. Soumya was not doing justice to his talents in BPL 3 so far.

But on the day after some anxious early moments Soumya played some of his signature strokes. His unbeaten innings of 58 in 56 would definitely make him feel much better and assured for next matches .He is too good a player to miss out for a long time. His reverse sweep and some pulls were beauty. Jahurul also played some lovely strokes in his 44 balls 47. His was the only wicket that Vikings managed to get but not before the opening pair put on 102.

Riders won comprehensively consolidating the position at the top and Vikings sunk deeper making it almost impossible to progress further in the tournament. Riders with several horses for the courses are one of leading contender for championship. In Shakib, Sammy, Thissara Pererra and Mohammad Nabi they have four top qualities all-rounders.

Three high quality left arm spinners give them edge over others on sluggish wickets. Shakib has three National Captains of past and present Misbah, Sammy and Nabi to share thoughts.

BDST: 1831 HRS, DEC 1, 2015
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