Fortune Barishal earned their first victory in the ongoing edition of the Bangladesh Premier League as they beat their Rangpur Riders counterpart by six-wickets in their second tie at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Tuesday.
With the Barishal’s Afghan top order batsman Ibrahim Zadran hitting a 41-ball 52 and Mehidy Hasan Miraz making a gusty 29-ball 43, propelled the side to 162-4 with four balls to spare, pursuing a humble 158-7.
Sikandar Raza was the pick among the Rangpur bowlers picking up 2-14 while Miraz and Chatiranaga de Silva scalped two wickets each for Barishal.
Shoaib Malik scored highest 36-ball 54 alongside for Rangpur while 40 off 28 balls came from Rony Talukdar’s bat.
Sent to bat, Chattogram lost their top order trio Mohammad Naim, Mahedi Hasan and Sikandar Raza for a duck, 6 and 2 runs respectively that limited them to 41-3 inside the powerplay.
Then, Chattogram's Pakistani all-rounder Shoaib Malik and Rony Talukdar shared a vital 23-ball 35 in the fourth wicket to overcome the early disaster before the latter was excluded by de Silva.
However, Malik carried on single handedly and formed a stormy 41 off 26 balls in the tail with his partner Robiul Haque who stood on 18 off 15, to pull the side beyond the hundred and fifty gateway.
In reply, Barishal made a wobbling start as they lost their opening pair de Silva and Anamul Haque Bijoy for 18 within the fourth over.
Although the latter looked to leave his frustration on his way to dressing room after he had been handed a leg-before out by the TV umpire following a strong appeal from the Chattogram’s Zimbabwe all-rounder Raza.
However, then the charge was wholly grasped by Ibrahim and his fellow partner Miraz in the third wicket stand who shared a whirlwind 58-ball 84 to take Barishal to the doorway of the victory before the duo were cut by Robiul and Raza respectively, leaving the side at 124-4.
The remaining task was done by Iftikhar Ahmed and Karim Janat who shared an undefeated 38-run stand in the fifth wicket to reach Barishal to achieve their target in 19.2 overs.
