Afif blitz guides Rajshahi to 7 wicket win

Local players dominated the day with a 53-ball 76 from Rajshahi Royals all-rounder Afif Hossain trumping an unbeaten century from Cumilla Warrior batsman Dawid Malan as Rajshahi registered a seven-wicket win in their Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League match at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram yesterday.

Earlier in the day, it was Tamim Iqbal and Mahedi Hasan who helped guide Dhaka Platoon to an easy eight-wicket victory against Sylhet Thunder in the first game of the day at the same venue.

In the night fixture, Rajshahi got off to a flying start in chase of the challenging 170 for eight posted by Cumilla. The two Rajshahi openers, Afif and Liton Das, raced to 60 before the latter was dismissed for a 19-ball 27 off a Mujeeb Ur Rahman delivery in the seventh over. Afif was dismissed in the 16th over but his incredible knock, featuring eight fours and two maximums, made the chase look easy for Rajshahi. Ravi Bopara smashed an unbeaten 23-ball 41 to help Rajshahi reach victory with 13 balls to spare.

Earlier, Cumilla batsman Malan became the second centurion of the tournament when he smashed an unbeaten 54-ball 100 to help his side post a challenging total.

Malan, who opened the innings for Cumilla, carried his bat through the innings as he smashed nine fours and five sixes to get to the three-figure mark. However, Soumya Sarkar’s 22-ball 20 was the next best score by a Cumilla player as only two other batsmen were able to cross the double-figure mark. Rajshahi pacer Mohammad Irfan, who was on a hat-trick in the 19th over, returned impressive figures of two for 23.