Rajshahi clinch T20 title
April 22, 2010 00:00:00
Favourites Rajshahi lived up to reputation as they cruised past Khulna by six wickets to clinch the Destiny Twenty20 Cricket title in the final held Wednesday at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium, reports BSS.
Rajshahi faced a daunting task of 162 to win in 20 overs. It was Shuvagoto Hom with a brilliant 62 and Rajshahi's Pakistani signing Kaiser Abbas with unbeaten 61 rescued them from the jaws of defeat and in the end it was a canter for the national champions Rajshahi who holds the crown in the longer version.
They reached the target with four balls to spare, and in the midway in the second part of the Rajshahi chase, due to some lusty hits Khulna bowlers literally left the ground without even a whimper as Shuvagoto and Kaiser Abbas reigned supreme with the willow.
But they must owe their comfort to Craigh Blizzard with 15 and Zunaed Siddiqui with 18 to put Rajshahi on course.
Shuvagoto scored 62 off 49 deliveries with four boundaries and two eye catching sixers while Abbas got his runs off 44 deliveries with nine superb boundaries and one towering six.
Earlier Imrul Kayes and Petersen got off to a flying start for Kings of Khulna to share a 40-run partnership, a promising opening stand allowing later batsmen to throw their bat at will to accelerate the run rate.
Imrul though could not improvise, ticked the scoreboard somehow with textbook shots before he miscued a shot off Kaisar Abbas to give a Naeem practice catch at cover on 24 off 27.
When Mithun Ali joined Petersen, the spectators got a real charm of Twenty20 as the duo put the Rajshahi bowlers on sword and smashed all the things with ease. Pakistan recruit Kaisar Abbas once again came up as rescuer with trapping Mithun lbw in front who played 18 ball-20 runs knock.
Rajshahi's most successful bowler Muktar Ali though had taken South African recruit Ryan Belli cheaply, Shakib looked impressive.
Alauddin Babu and Dollar Mahmud did not miss the chance as they produced undefeated 27 runs in just 10 balls. Alauddin who negotiated the last over, milked 20 runs with two fours and as many sixes. In the last five overs Khulna in fact scored 55 runs.