Darren Sammy’s knock helps Rajshahi Kings thrash Chittagong Vikings out of BPL 2016
Kings' skipper Sammy’s unbeaten whack of 55 knocks Vikings out of tournament
Rajshahi Kings defeated the Chittagong Vikings in the Eliminator of ongoing Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) 2016-17 by 3 wickets to enter the Qualifier No. 2. It was the Kings’ skipper Darren Sammy who single-handedly brought his team a victory which looked very unlikely at one point of time in the game. Sammy played an unbeaten knock of 55 runs from just 27 deliveries consisting of 7 boundaries and 2 huge sixes. Batting first, the Vikings were able to post a target of 143 in 20 overs, after the Kings’ bowler Kesrick Williams finished with brilliant figures of 4 for 11 in 4 overs.
Chasing the target of 143, the Kings were 6 down for 57 in the 11th over but Sammy did not allow that to take the better of him. He kept his calm and punished the bad balls for staying in the game and flurry of strokes in the end made sure that they strode home with rather an ease.
Earlier, the Kings won the toss and opted to bat and were rewarded quickly as Vikings opener Dwayne Smith was dismissed for duck. Chris Gayle (44 off 30) tried to up the scoring rate in the middle overs with some cracking strokes along with Tamim as they went on to put up a 74-run stand for the second wicket.
Shoaib Malik (14), Anamul Haque (11), Mohammad Nabi (5) Abdur Razzak (0) all failed to score big. Farhad Reza also took 2 wickets giving away 26 runs while James Franklin took the only wicket of Gayle as the Vikings eventually reached a total of 142 for the loss of 8 wickets in 20 overs.
The Kings had worst possible start in the second innings as they lost their opener Mominul Haque (4), Afif Hossain (0), Sabbir Rahman (11), Samit Patel (5) and Franklin (2) in quick succession.
Opener Nurul Hasan (34 off 28) tried to score some valuable runs but his efforts went in vain as he kept on losing partners at the other end. This downfall finally stopped when Sammy came at the crease as he took after the Vikings bowlers. Farhad Reza remained unbeaten on the other end of 19 runs from 11 deliveries and he appeared totally content to play the second fiddle to his skipper who kept on assaulting the opposition bowling department till the required runs were not chased down.
The Kings will now face the losing team from the first Qualifier
Brief scores:
Chittagong Vikings 142 for 8 (Tamim Iqbal 51, Chris Gayle 40; Kesrick Williams 11 for 4) lost vs Rajshahi Kings 143 for 7 (Darren Sammy 55*, Nurul Hasan 30; Saqlain Sajib 24 for 2) by 3 wickets and 9 balls remaining
Man of the Match – Darren Sammy