Ripon, Jishan star as HP pick up second win in Top End T20

Ripon Mondol picked up three wickets and Jishan Alam hit a half-century as the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) High Performance Unit defeated Australian Capital Territory (ACT) by six wickets, notching up their second win in the Top End T20 series at the TIO Stadium in Darwin, Australia today.

Sent to field, HP Unit restricted ACT to 124-9 with Ripon finishing with 3-26 and Abu Hider Rony picking up 2-26.

Left-arm spinners Mahfuzur Rahman Rabby and Rakibul Hasan claimed one wicket each while conceding just 14 and 21 runs respectively in their four overs.

For the ACT, Mikey McNamara was the lone batter to get into the 30s, making 36 off 26 balls before getting stumped off Rabby.

In reply, opener Jishan's 36-ball 50 catapulted the HP Unit to 125-4 in just 16.3 overs.

Jishan formed two important partnerships for the first two wickets, a 51-run opening stand off 31 balls with Tanzid Tamim (18 off 15 balls) and a then 44-run partnership off 38 balls with Parvez Hossain Emon (23 off 24 balls), to set up the easy win.

Jishan, who hit two sixes and a four, departed in the 14th over when the HP Unit were 19 runs away from victory.

Skipper Akbar Ali and Shamim Hossain remained unbeaten on five and one respectively to complete the chase.

Earlier, the HP Unit thrashed the Melbourne Renegades by 88 runs in their opening game, before suffering a five-wicket defeat to Tasmania and an eight-wicket drubbing against Adelaide Strikers.

They will next face Pakistan 'A' at the same venue on Friday.