A blistering century from Alex Hales and a brisk 49-ball 80 from Saif Hassan powered the Rangpur Riders to a thumping eight-wicket win against Sylhet Strikers in a high-scoring opening match of the Sylhet phase of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium today.

Hales remained unbeaten on 113 off 56 balls, an innings adorned with 10 fours and seven sixes, and together with Saif put together a massive 186-run stand for the second wicket off just 101 balls as Rangpur reached 210-2, chasing down the 206-run target with an over to spare.

Read more

‘Not facing Rana in the nets, he is too quick for me’

All the Sylhet bowlers were taken to the cleaners with the exception of Tanzim Sakib, who claimed two wickets and conceded just 23 in his four overs.

Earlier, the home crowd were enthralled by an entertaining batting display from Sylhet after they were asked to bat first.

Half-centuries from Rony Talukdar (54 off 32 balls) and Zakir Hasan (50 off 38) set up the base and an unbeaten 19-ball 38 from USA batter Aaron Jones and a quickfire five-ball 20 not out from Jaker Ali, who hit three sixes in the final over against Akif Javed, catapulted Sylhet to 205-4.

Sylhet started the defense on the right foot too, with Tanzim dismissing Azizul Hakim Tamim for a duck in the first over, which went for just two runs.

The dismissal brought Saif to the middle who joined hands with Hales and took the game away from Sylhet much to the dismay of the home fans.

This is the highest successful chase this season and the second highest overall in BPL history.

Durbar Rajshahi and Fortune Barishal will face off in the second match of the day.