Dhaka dominated yet again as Rangpur ride on all-round Mahedi and Omarzai to victory

Rangpur Riders rode on the performances of Mahedi Hasan and Azmatullah Omarzai to seal a dominating victory over Dhaka Dominators in Sylhet on Monday.

Mahedi starred with the bat scoring 72 as Rangpur chased down 144 quite comfortably. He also picked up a wicket giving away only 13 runs. Omarzai bagged a brace to restrict Dhaka inside 150. 

Chasing 145, Rangpur lost their opener, Mohammad Naim, for a duck in the second over. But Rony Talukdar and Mahedi built a quickfire 63-run partnership to weather the early storm. Mahedi actually dominated the partnership scoring 35 of those 63 runs in just 18 balls.

Rony bagged 29 off 28 balls. He hit five boundaries in his innings. 

Wickets kept on falling on the other end. Shoaib Malik and skipper Nurul Hasan were dismissed early after both scoring six runs each. But Mahedi kept on going. 

He built another useful 38-run partnership with Mohammad Nawaz before eventually getting dismissed for 72 off 43 balls. He hit six boundaries and five maximums all over the ground.

Nawaz and Omarzai then comfortably guided the Riders home with one over remaining. Nawaz remained unbeaten on 17 and Omarzai bagged 12 off 8 balls.

For Dhaka, Pakistani Salman Irshad bagged a brace. He was a tad expensive giving away 36 runs from his four overs. Amir Hamza, Al-Amin Hossain, and Soumya Sarkar picked up a wicket each. 

Batting first, Usman Ghani's unbeaten 73 took Dhaka to 144 for five. The Afghan batter scored at a strike rate of 133 where he hit seven boundaries and three maximums. 

Apart from him, only three other batters reached the double-digit mark and only one of them batted at more than 100 strike rate. Soumya and Mohammad Mithun scored 11 off 12 and 14 off 15 balls respectively. Skipper Nasir scored 29 off 22 balls hitting three boundaries and one maximum.

Omarzai was the star bowler for Rangpur with two for 27 to his name. Mahedi and Rakibul picked up a wicket each. Their economy rate was the highlight of the bowling with both spinners giving away 4.33 and 5.25 runs per over respectively.

Mahedi Hasan was adjudged the player of the match for his all-round performance with bat and bowl. 

"It was nice to get to fifty but I should have been there to finish the game," Mahedi said at the post-match presentation.

"I am enjoying both batting and bowling in this tournament. The plan was to bowl dot balls and you would get the wickets because of the pressure," he added.

Rangpur are now currently fourth on the table and they are on a three-match winning streak. Skipper Nurul said they are playing as a team in the last few matches and the result is now visible. 

"The bowlers bowled well and Mahedi played well at the top, so it was a good game for us. We are playing as a team in the last 4-5 games and that's why we have the momentum. We have four matches before the qualifiers and we will try to iron out some of the issues before that," Nurul said.