Rajshahi Kings have reached the BPL 2016 final, defeating Khulna Titans at Shere Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur on Wednesday. The Kings were brilliant in all departments of the game to emerge victorious by seven wickets to set up a title-decider clash with Dhaka Dynamites.
The Kings deserved their finals berth after some impressive performances in the playoffs. They did it the hard way, defeated Chiattagong Vikings in the eliminator, and Titans in the second qualifier.
Coming to today's match, the Kings bowlers had set up the win for their batsmen, who just had to make 126 runs in the second innings.
The Titans' top order were unlucky as both their openers were run out and with the added dismissal of Shuvagata Hom, they were looking down the barrel at 17 for three wickets.
However, some decent performance from their middle order batsmen, including skipper Mahmuddulah and Ariful Haque, helped them score 125 runs. The captain scored 22 runs while Ariful top-scored with 32 runs. Samit Patel was the pick of the bowlers for Kings, picking up three wickets.
With such a paltry score on the board, the Titans bowlers had to strike early and bag a couple of important wickets to keep their hopes alive against a strong Kings batting-line up.
Kevon Cooper did get rid of Mominul Haque in the second over, but they were still looking for some more wickets, which was not possible with Atif Hossain and Nurul Hasan playing some cautious cricket to score important runs.
Despite the dismissal of both the players, the Kings were in a comfortable position, with quality batsmen Sabbir Rahman and James Franklin at the crease. The duo, who have a good experience at the international level, did not take many risks and played good cricket to inch closer to the total. They rotated the strike to good effect and hit the odd boundary when required.
It was a calculated chase with Kings reaching the target in the final over as Franklin sealed the game with a six. Sabbir finished with 43 runs, and Franklin contributed 26 during the chase. The Kings will go into the final as a confident unit, which makes the title-decider against Dynamites on Friday interesting.
