Rangpur Riders began their Bangladesh Premier League )BPL)-2023 campaign on a brilliant note as they beat reigning champions Comilla Victorians by 34 runs at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur on Friday.

Rangpur opener Rony Talukdar smashed the quickest BPL fifty as a Bangladeshi in the game on his way to scoring 67 off 31 balls while Pakistani recruit Shoaib Malik made 33 runs as the 2017-edition champions posted 176-5 in 20 overs after they were sent into bat first.

With this win, Rangpur made their BPL comeback a memorable one as the Bashundhara Group-owned franchise opted to stay out of the competition in the previous two editions, reports Daily Sun.

Rangpur openers Rony and Mohammad Naim gave them a rollicking start as they put up an 84-run stand in 8.4 overs before the former was dismissed by Comilla’s Pakistani recruit Khushdil Shah.

Before the dismissal, Rony completed a 19-ball fifty – the fastest by a Bangladeshi in BPL history – while his blazing innings consisted of 11 fours and a six.

Naim then followed Rony as he was dismissed by Fazalhaq Farooqi after making 29 runs before Malik made a handy contribution to set Rangpur up for an exciting finish.

However, Rangpur, which were at 134-2 after the end of the 15th over, failed to accelerate their innings and could only add 42 runs in the last five overs to remain content with a below 180-run total.

Rangpur skipper Nurul Hasan Sohan remained not out on 18 of 11 balls while Sikandar Raza made 12 runs.

Comilla lost opener Litton Das (10) in the fourth over of their chase before Raza gave them a double blow by dismissing Dawid Malan (17) and Shykat Ali (16) to reduce them to 57-3 in 7.4 overs.

Comilla skipper Imrul Kayes and Mosaddek Hossain then brought their side back in the contest by adding 58 runs for the fourth wicket stand before Azmatullah Omarzai broke the dangerous-looking stand by dismissing Imrul after he made 35 runs.

The defending champions still required 62 runs off 31 balls when Imrul got out and the onus was on Mosaddek and Mohammad Nabi to take them to victory.

However, Mosaddek (15 off 25 balls) fell to Benny Howell, who earlier took a brilliant catch to remove Imrul, in the first ball of the next over while Nabi’s (five) dismissal to pacer Robiul Haque (2-33) sealed the fate of the match.

Rangpur pacer Hasan Mahmud claimed three out of the last four wickets to finish with a bowling figure of 3-20.

Bd-pratidin English/Golam Rosul