Andre Russell scored 54 by 22-ball with seven sixes and only two four to take Rajshahi Royals to storm into the final of BPL beating Chattogram Challengers by two wickets at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on Wednesday.
Rajshahi Royals will face Khulna Tigers in the final on Friday evening at 7:00 pm. Qualifier-1 match they already face each other and final will be the fourth match between each other. From qualifier-1 Khulna Tigers beat Rajshahi Royals, so final may be a revenge match for Rajshahi Royals.
After losing the toss Chattogram Challengers put up 164 runs for nine wickets. In reply, Rajshahi Royals started the chase and lost both of their openers- Afif and Liton earlier. Afif scored only 2 and Liton 6. Afif gave his wicket to Rubel Hossain and Liton was a victim of a run-out by Mehedi Hasan Rana. At number three Irfan Sukkur came to bat and scored 45 off 42 with six fours but number four Alok Kapali was dismissed for only 9 runs. Alok Kapali dismissed by Mahmudullah. Shoaib Malik failed to take responsibility when his team needed it. He scored 14 off 22 balls. Andree Russell came as a number six batsman and he added 33 runs with partner Mohammad Nawaz. Nawaz hit 14 off five balls. After five wickets losing Rajshahi got only 89 runs at 15 overs, but Rajshahi needed 76 runs in the last five overs. 16th and 17th over they scored 39 runs and losing two more wickets .18th over Rubel conceded only 6 runs and took a wicket to try to back the match. But 19th over, Mehedi Hasan Rana gave 23 runs and pushed his team in the backhand. Challenger’s captain gave the ball to Asela Gunaratne but he couldn’t save.
And all happened only for Andre Russel. He is the man who made it happen. In the end, he scored 54 off only 22 balls with only two fours and seven sixes and took his team in the final.
Rajshahi Royals won the toss earlier and sen the Chattogram Challengers to bat first and Ziaur Rahman open with Chris Gayle but put up 22 runs in the opening stand Ziaur Rahman fell as the first wicket. After Ziaur, Imrul Kayes also out for 5 runs. Chris Gayle was looking dangerous he scored 60 off 24 balls with four fours and five big sixes. Mahmudullah also played well, he scored 33 of 18 balls with three fours and sixes. Asela Gunaratne was the last batsman to have scored double-digit, he scored 31 off 25 balls.