Photo : Collected
Abu Hider Rony stole the show in the hotly anticipated 'Shakib vs Tamim' match between Fortune Barishal and Rangpur Riders as he took the Bangladesh Premier League's (BPL) best bowling figures, 5-12 in his four overs to restrict Barishal to 151-9 in their 20 overs.
In reply, Rangpur won a humdinger with just one wicket and three balls to spare.
Barishal were cruising towards a 200-plus total when the second wicket Tom Banton got out at 110 in the 12th over.
But from there, Rangpur fought back.
First, it was Shakib Al Hasan, who took the wicket of the Barishal captain Tamim Iqbal, with the first ball he bowled in the fourth over.
The Southpaw from Chattogram, Tamim, was batting very well before Shakib's introduction, scoring 33 from 20 balls in an innings with three boundaries and four sixes.
In trying to hit a delivery that was there to be driven, Tamim mistimed it and looped up for the fielder at short point Mahedi Hasan.
Shakib has now become the bowler to dismiss Tamim the most number of times in he BPL with five dismissals.
With the Chattogram crowd constantly chanting against Shakib and creating a hostile environment for Rangpur, they seemed to feed off of that energy and played some of their best cricket.
Rony came into the attack and immediately hit his straps.
His first over consisted of three wickets - Mushfiqur Rahim, Soumya Sarkar and the in-form Kyle Mayers who was going all guns blazing and scored 46 from 27 balls - as Barishal slumped to 116-5 after 13 overs.
Rony would later pick up the wickets of Mahmudullah Riyad and Mehidy Hasan Miraz to have his bowling figures look extremely pretty at 5-5 at that point.
The bowling figures are nonetheless the best ever by a Bangladesh bowler in BPL history and the best bowling figures in this edition so far.
In reply, Rangpur got off to an absolute flier, scoring 74 runs in the powerplay for the loss of just two wickets.
Shakib was aided by West Indian Brandon King who smashed four sixes and three boundaries in a 22-ball 44.
Barishal fought back with the bowling of Mehidy Hasan Miraz who took three wickets for 24 runs in his four-over spell in the middle.
Those included the wickets of King and Shakib, who scored 29 from 15 balls, and Mahedi Hasan.
Messenger/Sumon
