Vikings ride on Taskin show

Taskin Ahmed's three-wicket haul ended Rangpur Riders chances of chasing down the 166-run target set by Chittagong Vikings.

Lasith Malinga and Sohag Gazi kept the Riders in the game as some lusty hits from Malinga brought 11 runs in the 19th over. Riders needed 16 from the last over but Subashis Roy kept Sohag Gazi in check and Chittagong won by 11 runs.

Player-of-the Match Taskin Ahmed showed some neat footwork skill which led to the run-out of Ravi Bopara just as the Rangpur chase was gaining momentum. Taskin was on a hattrick having removed Shahriar Nafees and Samiullah Shenwari off consecutive deliveries in the 13th over. On the final ball of the over, he was able to get his foot onto a straight drive from Perera and the ball crashed against the stumps at the bowlers end with Ravi Bopara out of his crease.

Riders started off their chase badly, losing two wickets early on in the innings. Mohammed Mithun Ali provided some resistance along with Ravi Bopara who top-scored with a 32-ball 38.

Riders needed 65 runs off 48 deliveries at the end of 12 overs of play and with seven wickets in hand but Taskin's over turned the tide in Vikings favour. Taskin finished with figures of 3 for 31 from his four overs. Left-arm medium pacer Luis Reece grabbed two wickets and conceded 26 in his four overs.

Earlier, opener Luke Ronchi's powerful batting propelled Chittagong Vikings to 166 for four against Mashrafe Mortaza's Rangpur Riders in their second BPL match played at Sylhet International Cricket Stadium.

The opener started the innings with a bang when he hit Mashrafe for two sixes in the very first over. He proceeded to hit Sohag Gazi for three four's in just the second over of the innings. He reserved the worst for left-arm off spinner Nazmul Hasan who he hit for three sixes and a four in just the third over of the innings.

Ronchi's incredible innings gave Chittagong wings as they notched up 63 runs in just five overs even as Soumya Sarkar was removed by Mashrafe Bin Mortaza in the fifth over.

The New Zealand batsman kept hitting the ball all over the park before he fell in the ninth over to Ravi bopara after a 35-ball 78 – an innings that contained seven four's and seven sixes.

Chittagong were scoring at 11.11 runs per over and had notched up 99 runs before Ronchi fell but after his departure, Rangpur were able to slow down the Vikings scoring rate.

Bopara then removed Dilshan Munaweera out-bowled in the 11th over. Misbah-ul-Haq struggled to get much joy out of his 32-ball 31 as Lasith Malinga, Mashrafe and Bopara's death overs bowling restricted Chittagong to 166 from 20 overs.