Bangladesh’s Rangpur Riders sealed a place in tonight’s final
Rain tried to play spoilsport at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence on Thursday night as the Rangpur Riders and Lahore Qalandars battled for a spot in the ExxonMobil Guyana Global Super League (GSL) T20 final.
Though the showers reared their ugly head on more than one occasion, they could not indefinitely stop the thrilling nine-over contest that would ensue, resulting in the Rangpur Riders coming from the bottom of the points table to steal a spot in the final.
Mahedi Hasan began to unravel the Qalandars with early wickets
After a delayed start, the Rangpur Riders won the toss and opted to bat first, getting to 85-1 in nine overs before a decision was taken to truncate their already shortened innings.
Steven Taylor and Soumya Sarkar got Rangpur off to a lightning fast start, raining down boundaries on the Lahore bowlers. The ferocity of their partnership was such that Captain Carlos Brathwaite turned to Tabraiz Shamsi early, but even the South African spinner could not break the partnership.
The man with the golden arm was Mirza Baig, who removed Sarkar for 22 from 13 balls. Taylor pressed on alongside Saif Hasan as the Rangpur Riders raced to put runs on the board. Taylor remained unbeaten on 32 from 27, inclusive of four fours and one six while Hasan was also not out on 27 from 14 balls.
Steven Taylor got the Rangpur Riders off to a quick start
The third bout of rain forced the umpire’s hand, and he decided to have the Lahore Qalandars attempt a nine-over chase; they needed 111 runs in that period, calculated by the DLS method.
The Lahore Qalandars had the right idea with regard to pace but the frequent loss of their wickets became a hindrance to their cause. Mahedi Hasan was the chief architect in Rangpur’s victory, claiming 3-11 in two overs while Zak Chappell took 2-17 in two overs to restrict the Lahore Qalandars to 87-7 in their nine overs.
The groundsmen were kept on their toes at Providence Stadium on Thursday night
For the Qalandars, Baig slammed 31 from 20 balls while Tom Abell hit 25 from 12 deliveries.
As such, the Rangpur Riders will come up against Cricket Victoria in the inaugural ExxonMobil Guyana GSL final this evening at 19:00h.
