Rangpur Riders crash out of BPL

Rangpur Riders were knocked out of the BPL after losing their final league match against Barisal Burners by 26 runs. The result put Duronto Rajshahi in the final four of the competition, with a shot at the final, because they are ahead on the head-to-head count, after finishing on ten points along with Riders and Burners.

Before of the game, the Riders had a straightforward task. They only had to win against the Burners, but despite restricting them to 139 for 7, their batting crumbled. A poor start was followed by a small partnership in the middle order, before Kevin O'Brien smacked a few boundaries. After his dismissal, however, Riders lost the plot and crashed out of the tournament. Strangely, Fidel Edwards played out a maiden in the last over of innings bowled by Azhar Mahmood.

Junaid Siddique was the first to go, needlessly lofting Hamid Hassan to Brad Hodge, who trotted back from midwicket to take the catch. The Afghanistan fast bowler then used the bouncer to get rid of Shamsur Rahman and Nasir Hossain. Seamer Al-Amin Hossain got Imrul Kayes out to reduce the Riders to 17 for 4 in the fourth over.

Cameron Borgas and Danza Hyatt revived the faltering Riders' chase, as they added 47 for the fifth wicket. By the 15th over, however, both had fallen and O'Brien began striking the ball cleanly for the first time in the tournament. He struck two sixes in his 16-ball 29, before carving a catch to point off Farveez Maharoof in the 19th over, when the contest had virtually ended.

The Burners had also struggled in their innings, when left-arm spinner Saju Datta, who finished with three wickets, removed Hodge and Sabbir Rahman in the fifth over. Abdur Razzak then took the other key wicket of Mahmood, and the Burners had lost three wickets in the space of six deliveries early in their innings.

Wickets continued to fall regularly, and the Burners were reduced to 90 for 6 at the end of the 15th over. Elias Sunny and Maharoof then added 49 runs for the seventh wicket to change the course of the match.