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Riders win cliffhanger to remain unbeaten
Kaieteur Sports – (GSL) – Hobart Hurricanes XI and Rangpur Riders had both started their ExxonMobil Guyana Global Super League campaigns with a win but only one side could carry on their unbeaten streak after they met at Guyana National Stadium, Providence, with Rangpur Riders stealing a thriller off the last ball of the game to take the spoils and head to the top of the (GSL) table after five completed games.
Rangpur Riders are off to an excellence start in their title defence. (Getty Images)
Hurricanes captain Ben McDermott won the toss and inserted the Riders who got themselves to a competitive total of 151/6 largely thanks to 43 off 31 balls from Ibrahim Zadran at the top of the order and the swashbuckling blade of Kyle Mayers who hit 8 fours and two sixes to score 67 off 42 balls and to remain unbeaten and go past the milestone of 4000 T20 runs in the process.
The Hurricanes were thankful for the tricksy leg-spin of Usama Mir, his three wickets for just 15 runs kept the Riders total to a manageable one. The Riders would also have been pleased with what has been around a par score for the tournament so far and were buoyed even more when Mayers removed Hurricane’s opener Bhankuka Rajapaska caught behind by Nurul Hasan with the score on just 4 runs.
A solid partnership of 49 runs then followed in quick time between McDermott and Macalister Wright, the same pair who impressed with the bat in the Hurricanes first match of the tournament. Any thoughts the Hurricanes might have had of coasting the total were soon dashed, however, when 53/2 soon became 82/5 with the top order all back in the hutch.
With 55 required off the last six overs, Hurricanes had Mohammed Nabi and Odean Smith both set in double figures. Nabi then opened the shoulders in the 15th over, plundering Tabraiz Shamsi for a six and then a four, thirteen runs off the over left the game in the balance, 42 needed from 30 balls.
Azmatullah Omarzai than rattled through a frugal over for the cost of just six runs to keep Riders in with chance, with 36 needed from 24 balls, Hurricanes were only ever a few lusty blows away.
The match swung one way then the other, Odean Smith hit Khaled Ahmed for four only for the Bangladeshi medium pacer to hit back right away and dismiss Smith for 20 off 13 balls. Azmatullah Omarzai did the business again, the 18th over costing just four runs.
Needing 22 off 12 deliveries, Nabi swiped the first ball of the 19th over from Khaled Ahmed for six but the twists still came as Ahmed dismissed Fabian Allen and Raf Macmillan in consecutive balls to leave Hurricanes needing 12 off the final over.
Azmatullah Omarzai was given the last over, Nabi swiped him for 6 and looked to have the game won before he fell for 44 to leave 3 runs needed off 1 ball. Billy Stanlake was run out off the final ball to give Rangpur Riders the victory by just one run as a breathless encounter came to a close in Guyana.
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