Tamim fifty fires Tigers to first win in BPL

Veteran opener Tamim Iqbal's first fifty in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) made Khulna Tigers' chase of 130 runs a walk in the park against Rangpur Riders on Tuesday. This was Khulna's first victory after three consecutive defeats in the first three games.

The Tigers barely broke a sweat while hunting down the modest 129 set by the Riders.

Tamim and Munim Shahriar got the team off to a good start before the latter was dismissed inside the powerplay. Mahmudul Hasan Joy took his time but played the perfect second foil to his senior partner. The pair added 89 runs for the second wicket and ensured the Tigers opened their account on the points table.

Bangladesh's ODI skipper bagged an unbeaten 60 off 47 balls. He hit four boundaries and two maximums in his innings. He struggled in the ongoing BPL scoring only 49 runs in the previous three inninings at a strike rate of just 87.5. This 60-run innings will give him and the team a much-needed boost going into the business end of the group stage. 

Joy played a sluggish innings of 32 of 41 balls before finishing off the match in style with a six which helped him improve his strike rate in the end.

Munim played a 100-strike-rate innings of 21 before becoming the only victim of Riders' bowlers.  

The Riders obviously did not have enough runs on the board. Their bowlers tried their best to make a fight out of it but it was never going to be enough. Azmatullah Omarzai was the only successful bowler for them.

Earlier, Khulna skipper Yasir Rabbi won the toss and asked Riders to bat first. Nahidul Islam gave Khulna a fantastic start by getting wicket in the very first over before Wahab Riaz ran riot with the ball. 

Riaz picked up four wickets for only 14 runs from his four overs.

Amad Butt picked up three wickets to complement his fellow Pakistani pacer. 

For Rangpur, Mahedi Hasan was the top scorer with 38 runs. 

Khulna skipper Yasir Rabbi said the win is a 'sigh of relief' to finally bag a victory after three straight defeats. 

"Sigh of relief. It was a much-needed win for us and we can now take it from here," he said at the post-match presentation.

He credited both Wahab and Tamim for the victory. 

"When seniors like Wahab and Tamim do well, then it makes it easier for the others. Tamim Bhai played really well and he guided Joy. The partnership was a good plus point and they also got to spend some time in the middle. Joy hasn't been playing T20s for long and spending time with Tamim would have helped him," he added.

Wahab Riaz was adjudged the player of the match for his destructive spell with the ball. He mentioned the Khulna bowlers bowled in partnerships and that helped seal the victory.

"The wicket was little bit slow but we had to bowl according to our plans. Also, bowling wicket to wicket helps on such surfaces. Today everybody bowled well and as a bowling unit you have to bowl in partnerships, we did that today. We lost the first three games but we have some momentum now and it is all about peaking at the right time," Wahab said.