Mahedi Hassan, the number eight batter operated well the last over following the valuable innings by Shamim Hossain (one down batter) to guide Rangpur Riders to an exciting four wickets win over Fortune Barisal in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) cricket on Sunday.
Held at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, Rangpur Riders after the thriller win stepped up for the playoff.
It was the last option for the both the Fortune Barisal and Rangpur Riders to have the lifeline to play the playoff match to contest for the qualification for final.
Having the opportunity to bat first, a rapid 69 runs from 48 deliveries by opener Mehidy Hassan Miraz, at the middle Mahmudullah Riyad and Karim Jannat played two valuable innings to build through a formidable total 170 runs losing three wickets.
But Rangur chased the target losing six wickets with three balls to spare.
However, on the day Rangpur having the coin favoure sending Barisal to bat first could not make any early blow, as their bowlers failed to make any impact and Barisal scored 46 in the first six overs power play for one wicket.
Mehidy Hassan Miraz coming to open the innings with very attacking approach when linked up by his opening partner Alex and later on with the one down batter Mahmud Ullah to score 112 runs from 78 balls.
Mehidy Miraz in 69 runs innings enjoyed most of the strike with sending the ball outside the rope for nine times and over the rope for twice before to end up in his charge.
Rangpur bowlers looked to get back their line and length when they made two big breakthrough in a quick succession with taking the wickets of danger men Mehidy Miraz and Mahmudullah Riyad in a span of 11 runs to restrict Barisal on 170 runs.
Karim Jannat and Vanuka Rajapaksha with good striking rate scored unbeaten 44 runs from 4.1 overs to finish Barisal innings on 170.
In reply to a moderate target Rangpur saw a big blow when opener Mohammed Naim was out for a duck in the fifth ball of the innings showing the scorecard for no runs to a terrific delivery from the slow left arm orthodox captain Shakib Al Hassan.
But the Rangpur Riders, who suffered defeat in their previous two times meeting, bounced back strongly with opener Rony Talukder and one-down Shamim Hossain took the challenge to get rid of the trouble.
Rony Talukder and Shamim handled the strong bowling attack, led by Shakib successfully in the second wickets stands with runs coming from both ends, and the duo reached to 61 runs in 6.1 overs.
Rony Talukder, who kept cool to carry on the responsibility scored 29 runs from 17 balls, hit two fours and as many sixes.
Shamim Hossain was remained on the crease with his aggressive mood when he turbocharged his way to play 71 runs innings cracking four sixes and as many boundaries to elevate the expectation of Rangpur win the match.
But at one stage the prospect of an outright win for Rangpur seems unlikely, when Shakib and Khaled Ahmed struck again with taking three wickets with most danger wicket Shamim in a short period.
Though Shamim Hossain, Nurul Hasan, Dwayne Bravo and Nicals Pooran went in a short interval leaving the match to last over thriller with needing eight runs to win for Rangpur.
Mahedi Hasan and Dasun Shanaka, played two tiny but the most valuable innings to win the match for Rangpur Riders when Mahedi hit two successive fours to finish the game.
Shakib Al Hassan, brought Kamrul in the last over, who conceded 23 runs in his previous three overs, Mahedi took a double in the first ball and smashed a couple of boundary in the next two balls with Rangpur were needing eight runs in the last over.
