Nurul Hasan, Nahid Rana, and Khushdil Shah helped Rangpur to defend 155 runs鈥攖he lowest so far in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League鈥攁s they beat Sylhet Strikers by 34 runs at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Tuesday.聽
Sylhet were restricted to 121-9 in 20 overs as Nahid Rana bagged his first four-for in his T20 career.聽
Stephen Taylor began the Rangpur鈥攚ho elected to bat first鈥攊nnings with a boundary off Tanzim Hasan, but soon the Sylhet pacer struck as Alex Hales failed again.
Al-Amin Hossain鈥檚 double blow then left Rangpur in a dire state.聽
Pakistani recruits Khushdil and Iftikhar Ahmed then calmed things a bit for them in their partnership of 41 runs from 38 balls, but Khushdil鈥檚 stay was cut short by Samiullah Shinwari after he made 21.聽
Nurul then came to lift them up, but Iftikhar struggled to shift the gear. The Pakistani big hitter then played the anchor role throughout while Nurul played a knock of 41 off 24 with four fours and two sixes.聽
Mahedi Hasan鈥檚 eight-ball 16 helped them to go past 150; Iftikhar remained unbeaten on 47 off 42. Tanzim and Al-Amin each took two, while Reece Topely and Shinwari took one each.聽
Sylhet then never got going in the run chase despite a 36-ball 41-run innings from opener Rony Talukdar. They lost four wickets in the powerplay.聽
Jaker Ali, who had to come inside the powerplay, struggled throughout his innings. He was undone by Nahid after scoring 24 from 33. And with Jaker鈥檚 wicket, Sylhet鈥檚 hopes were all but gone.聽
Before that, Rony and Ariful Haque fell off successive deliveries off Khushdil. He almost got the hat-trick, but Samiullah got a reprieve through DRS. After that, no one could threaten Rangpur.聽
Nahid finished with 4-27, while Khushdil and Mohammad Saifuddin took two wickets each.聽
