Royals return to winning ways

Sylhet Royals overcame yet another initial jittery to return to wining ways in the Bangladesh Premier League when they handed Rangpur Riders a five-wicket defeat in Chittagong on Thursday.
Nazmul Hossain Milon finally produced a man-of-the-match performance after being the second best performer of a match on quite a few occasions as his 45 from 29 balls lifted Royals to their sixth win in seven matches.
Milon led a revival after coming in to bat with the scoreboard ticking at 62-4 and helped his side coast to victory making 126-5 in 19.3 overs after dismissing their opponents for a modest 122.
Dwayne Smith made 31 from 21 balls at the top order adding to his three wickets taken earlier. Royals were in trouble after losing a few wickets in quick successions.
An untroubled Milon shouldered the responsibility alone and with the help of skipper Mushfiqur Rahim, who made 17 from 24 balls, the right-hander steadied the innings.
Elton Chigumbura struck a huge six off Abur Razzak to level the score and Milon, who hit five fours and a six, finished off the game with a boundary off the bowling of Fidel Edwards through mid-wicket.
Earlier, Rangpur Riders made a decent start but dramatically collapsed in the last few overs to put on a total that was hardly enough. They scored the identical score in their previous match and made it a winning total against Khulna, who were bowled out for the tournament’s lowest total of 89.
But Royals, who lost just one game to Dhaka Gladiators in their previous fixture, proved they were a different proposition on the day, handing Riders their third defeat in the tournament.
Opener Shamsur Rahman made his third fifty in the tournament and took Riders to 73-1 in the first 10 overs before they could add just 49 in the next 10 overs.
Shamsur and Cameron Borgas added 63 runs for the second wicket and just when they were about to begin their onslaught spinner Sohag Gazi brought Royals back in the contest.
Mominul Haque took a fine one-handed catch at mid-wicket to remove Borgas for 28 and the collapse started immediately with Riders losing their last eight wickets for a mere 20 runs.
Shamsur was the one to join the dressing-room bound procession after he had made 52 from 45 balls, his third half-century which is also the highest by any batsman in BPL-2.
Sohag Gazi took three crucial wickets to finish with 3-20 while Smith mopped up the tail taking the last two wickets, which earned him a figure of 3-23.