AB de Villiers stars of Rangpur’s 8-wicket win in BPL

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CHATTOGRAM, Jan 28, 2019 (BSS)- AB de Villiers scored a match-winning unbeaten century saw defending champions Rangpur Riders to earn an overwhelming eight-wicket victory over Dhaka Dynamites in the 34th match of Bangladesh Premier League T20 held on Monday at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium here.

Chasing a massive winning target of 187 runs set by Dhaka, Rangpur hardly had to sweat as they comfortably reached home making 189 runs in 18.2 overs for the loss of two wickets.

The South African recruit AB de Villiers, who got back his from today after some matches, smashed 50-ball off 100 runs with eight boundaries and six over boundaries and during the process he shared an unbeaten 184-run third wicket stand with Alex Hales to guided Rangpur towards the victory after Rangpur lost two wickets Chris Gayle and Rilee Rossouw at five runs in the score board.

Another opener Alex Hales provided an ample support during the partnership composing a fine knock of 53-ball off 85-run laced with eight boundaries and three over boundaries.

Andre Russell was the most successful bowler as he claimed two Rangpur’s wickets giving away 30 runs.

Earlier, Dhaka Dynamites posted a challenging total of 186 for 6 from their stipulated 20overs after they opted to bat first.

Rony Talukder smashed 32-ball off 52 runs hitting six boundaries and one over boundary while Kieron Pollard blazed unbeaten 23-ball off 37 runs with the help of five boundaries and one over boundary.

Sunil Narine (28)and Shakib Al Hasan (25) were the other notable scorers for Dhaka.

Farhad Reza was the pickof Rangpur bowler as he claimed two Dhaka’s wickets conceding 32 runs.

AB de Villers of Rangpur was named the player ofthe match forhis impressive batting performance.

With this win, Rangpur reached top of the table with securing 12points from 10 matches while Dhaka Dynamites remained at their previous credit of 10 points from nine matches.

After the match, winning Rangpur’s skipper Mashrafe Mortaza said: “The wicket was very good. The bowlers bowled really well and we knew that 187 is a big total but on a wicket like this if you play 3-4 overs, the ball will come nicely onto the bat. Obviously on this wicket even 200 is chasable if you get going in the first six overs. Fielding is very important in this format, the bowlers bowled with a plan and the fielders backed it up well.”

Losing Dhaka’s skipper Shakib Al Hasan said: ” The way we were playing after ten overs, we were thinking of scoring around 200-210, but the way AB and Hales were batting, even 220 wouldn’t have been enough.

Our top order isn’t scoring big runs and in such matches we depend heavily on them to score 70s and 80s. There are still three matches remaining and we’ll be up for the challenge. I am not too worried about our bowling; apart from this game we were really good, it is our batting that is letting us down.”