Shepherd’s all-round effort goes to waste
A VALIANT effort from West Indies all-rounder Romario Shepherd failed to spur Chattogram Challengers, and Rangpur Riders clinched an 18-run win against them in the Bangladesh Premier League yesterday.
Shepherd followed up a tidy spell of three for 27 from four overs with a brutal, unbeaten 66 off 30 balls that included five fours and six sixes and narrowly failed to carry Challengers over the finish line in the contest on home soil at the ZAC Stadium.
Chasing 188 to win, Shepherd was practically a one-man wrecking crew with his raw hitting power and dominated the closing stages of the match in a stand of 40 for the sixth wicket with Ziaur Rahman, and 51 – unbroken – for the seventh wicket with Shohidul Islam.
The chase got off to a shaky start for the Challengers after South African pacer Dwaine Pretorius, who played alongside Shepherd in the Guyana Amazon Warriors side that won the Caribbean Premier League last year, destroyed their top-order batting.
Pretorius ended with three for 14 from his allotted four overs, removing Tanzid Hasan, Australian Josh Brown, and Shykat Ali in his opening spell for 13, four, and nine respectively, and Challengers limped to 39 for three at the end of the Power Play.
New Zealander Tom Bruce scored 24, and Challengers captain Shuvagata Hom made 21, and they sparked a mini revival with a stand of 45 for the fourth wicket before they were dismissed in the span of three balls to Bangladesh offspinner Mahedi Hasan in the 12th over.
Challengers still required 110 from 49 balls, and the lion-hearted Shepherd stepped in to try to end their losing streak, but he failed, and they slumped to their fifth defeat in 10 matches in the seventeam tournament and remain stuck in fifth.
Earlier, an equally enterprising 62 off 39 balls from star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan catapulted the table-topping Riders to 187 for eight from their allocation of 20 overs after they won the toss and decided to bat.
Riders finished the Power Play on 40 for two after Shohidul removed opener Rony Talukdar in the fifth over for 25, and Shepherd trapped South African opener Reeza Hendricks leg before wicket for four in the next over before Shakib struck him for the first of his three sixes.
Shepherd kept his cool and tightened the grip of the Challengers on the match when he removed West Indies whiteball opener Brandon King for two in the eighth over and had Riders wobbling on 52 for three.
Riders sank to 71 for four when Salauddin Sakil bowled Riders captain Nurul Hasan for five in the 11th over, but Shakib added 68 for the fifth wicket with Mahedi that revived the innings and held sway until Shepherd removed him in the penultimate over.
In the day’s earlier match at the same venue, West Indies One-day International captain Shai Hope hit 32 and helped Khulna Tigers engineer a five-wicket win against Durdanto Dhaka.
Hope struck three fours and one six from 28 balls, and West Indies left-hander Evin Lewis made only four, and Durdanto successfully chased 129 to win with 28 balls remaining.
West Indies and Jamaica pacer Oshane Thomas bowled an economical, but wicket-less spell of none for 18 in his four overs, as Dhaka limped to 128 for seven after they won the toss and decided to bat.