BPL 4 team review: Rangpur Riders start 5-1, finish 1-5

Rangpur Riders started their Bangladesh Premier League Twenty20 2016-17 season campaign with brilliant performances. But they lost their way in the middle stages and eventually failed to qualify for the playoffs. Rangpur surprised many fans this season with both their cricket and team. The franchise assigned former Bangladesh opening batsman Javed Omar Belim as their head coach and the decision raised quite a few eyebrows. With that said, Rangpur formed an impressive team recruiting Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi, Afghanistan wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Shahzad and Tigers' dashing opener Soumya Sarkar, among others. With so many explosive batsmen in their line up, fans rightly expected an exciting brand of cricket. And Rangpur did start brilliantly in the first phase of the tournament, surprising everyone with exciting cricket with both bat and ball. In their first six matches, they won five and at one stage were at the top of the points table. Their sole defeat in the first six matches came against eventual finalist Dhaka Dynamites in their third game. Out of their five wins, four came with big margin – nine wickets against the star-studded Chittagong Vikings in the first match, nine wickets against Khulna Titans in the second match, nine wickets against holders Comilla Victorians in the fifth match and seven wickets again against Khulna in the sixth match. Their spin trio - Sohag Gazi, Arafat Sunny and Afridi - were in superb form and bowled brilliantly during that period. Their best performance probably came against Khulna in the third match when they bowled the opposition out for just 44 runs in Dhaka's Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium. [caption id="attachment_38812" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Rangpur's Mohammad Mithun had a terrific tournament but often lacked a partner at the other end DHAKA TRIBUNE[/caption] However, following that terrific start, Rangpur lost their way and slid down the points table. In their next six matches, Rangpur managed to win only once, in the process losing their top four stranglehold. Their fortunes worsened owing to some off-field controversies and allegations. Jupiter Ghosh, who was picked up in the players' draft, claimed that manager and former national cricketer Sanwar Hossain approached him illegally, which the former denied straightaway. Jupiter was later suspended. On the other hand, Rangpur denied such allegations and claimed that Jupiter was guilty of disciplinary issues. Those off-field incidents might have affected team morale and as a result, Rangpur began to lose consecutive matches. In their last round robin game, Rangpur were up against an achievable equation - win the match with a good run rate and secure a playoff spot. But Rangpur lost against Comilla while Khulna later won against Dhaka which consigned the Riders to fifth position with 12 points. Chittagoing and Rajshahi also had 12 points but a superior net run rate meant Rangpur missed out on the playoffs. Local players [caption id="attachment_38817" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Rangpur left-arm spinner Arafat Sunny impressed with the ball but their batters often led the side down DHAKA TRIBUNE[/caption] Local spinners Gazi and Sunny bowled impressively in the first and second phase. Off-spinner Gazi regularly opened the bowling for Rangpur, making important breakthroughs more often than not. Gazi took 12 wicktes in as many innings with an economy rate of 6.17. Sunny also bowled brilliantly, taking 13 wickets in 12 innings. His three-wicket haul without giving away any runs in 3.3 overs is one of the best bowling figure in T20 history. Paceman Rubel Hossain found his form and rhythm in the latter stages bagging 15 wickets in 12 innings. As far as batting is concerned, Mohammad Mithun led the way among the local players scoring 350 runs from 12 innings with a superb average of 45.71. But it was a tournament to forget for the left-handed Soumya. Rangpur's icon player experienced a terrible run of form with the bat, making only 135 runs in 12 innings at an average of just 12.27. Foreign players [caption id="attachment_38819" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Although Rangpur's Shahid Afridi was brilliant with the ball, his batting was a major disappointment DHAKA TRIBUNE[/caption] Afghan recruit Shahzad was brilliant with the bat, registering some magnificent innings. He ended his campaign with 350 runs in 11 innings at an average of 38.88. His keeping was impressive as well. But Afridi, better known as Boom Boom Afridi for his power hitting, failed with the bat. The former Pakistan captain scored only 119 runs in 11 innings. The fans and the Rangpur team management certainly expected more form the attacking batsman. Afridi though was magnificent with the ball. The right-arm spinner took 17 wickets from 11 innings at an economy rate of 6.35. His compatriot, pacer Anwar Ali was unimpressive and only managed to take two wickets from six innings. Squad Local players Arafat Sunny (bowler), Elias Sunny (bowler), Jupiter Ghosh (batsman), Mehrab Hossain (batsman), Mohammad Mithun (wicketkeeper-batsman), Muktar Ali (all-rounder), Naeem Islam (all-rounder), Pinak Ghosh (batsman), Rubel Hossain (bowler), Soumya Sarkar (all-rounder), Ziaur Rahman (all-rounder), Sohag Gazi (all-rounder) and Shahbaz Chouhan (bowler). Foreign players Richard Gleeson (England/bowler), Babar Azam (Pakistan/batsman), Mohammad Shahzad (Afghanistan/wicketkeeper-batsman), Nasir Jamshed (Pakistan/batsman), Gidron Pope (West Indies/batsman), Sachithra Senanayake (Sri Lanka/bowler), Shahid Afridi (Pakistan/all-rounder), Sharjeel Khan (Pakistan/batsman), Dasun Shanaka (Sri Lanka/all-rounder) and Gihaan Rupasinghe (Sri Lanka/batsman). Last 12 match: WWLWWWLLLLWL BPL 4 Statistics

Most runs

Player	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	0	4s	6s
Mohammad Shahzad	11	11	2	350	80*	38.88	318	110.06	0	2	0	36	11
Mohammad Mithun	12	12	5	320	64*	45.71	272	117.64	0	2	1	18	13
Soumya Sarkar	12	12	1	135	26	12.27	148	91.21	0	0	0	9	6
Ziaur Rahman	7	5	3	128	60	64.00	101	126.73	0	1	0	9	7
Shahid Afridi	11	8	0	119	38	14.87	84	141.66	0	0	1	7	7
LA Dawson	12	9	2	114	46	16.28	116	98.27	0	0	0	6	4
Sohag Gazi	12	6	2	62	36	15.50	57	108.77	0	0	0	4	1
Naeem Islam	10	4	2	57	26	28.50	56	101.78	0	0	0	3	1
Nasir Jamshed	3	3	0	49	27	16.33	52	94.23	0	0	0	6	1
Anwar Ali	6	4	1	33	20*	11.00	25	132.00	0	0	0	3	1

 

Most wickets

Player	Mat	Inns	Overs	Mdns	Runs	Wkts	BBI	Ave	Econ	SR	4	5
Shahid Afridi	11	11	40.0	1	254	17	4/12	14.94	6.35	14.1	1	0
Rubel Hossain	12	12	43.0	0	316	15	3/25	21.06	7.34	17.2	0	0
Arafat Sunny	12	11	30.3	2	192	13	3/0	14.76	6.29	14.0	0	0
Sohag Gazi	12	12	34.4	1	214	12	3/19	17.83	6.17	17.3	0	0
LA Dawson	12	11	31.0	0	220	7	2/11	31.42	7.09	26.5	0	0
RJ Gleeson	3	3	6.1	0	53	3	2/30	17.66	8.59	12.3	0	0
Soumya Sarkar	12	2	5.0	0	38	2	2/27	19.00	7.60	15.0	0	0
Ziaur Rahman	7	3	5.0	0	49	2	2/22	24.50	9.80	15.0	0	0
Anwar Ali	6	6	19.0	0	170	2	1/25	85.00	8.94	57.0	0	0
Naeem Islam	10	2	2.0	0	21	1	1/14	21.00	10.50	12.0	0	0

Statistics source: ESPNcricinfo