Doeschate makes mark finally

Dutchman Ryan ten Doeschate finally made his mark in the Bangladesh Premier League when he scored a match-winning 95 runs for Chittagong Kings against Khulna Royal Bengals on Thursday.
Ten Doeschate, often hailed as Sachin Tendulkar of ICC associate member nations, was getting a start in every game that he played since making his BPL debut against Barisal Burners, but he somehow missed out on a big score.
After his first three innings ended in the 20s, he was unbeaten on 41 against Royal Bengals in their first meeting before returning to the same phenomenon against Dhaka Gladiators in the last match.
He spoiled his good start against Gladiators by getting out on 23 which could have a potentially disastrous effect on the team. After his dismissal there was hardly any batting left and consequently Kings were dismissed for 142.
The port city side’s bowlers salvaged a 54-run win but ten Doeschate was not ready to wait for them, doing the job again. With the team struggling at 10-3, he did something very special to set up an even bigger win as Kings crushed Royal Bengals by 89 runs.
‘That’s been very frustrating giving my wicket four times for 20 and being not out once,’ said Doeschate. ‘But I feel that I am batting well and in Twenty20 cricket sometimes you need to play your shots at very high risk and can get out at 20 and 30s.
‘It’s nice to make a big score in the end,’ said the South African-born cricketer, who plays for Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League alongside Bangladesh’s Sakib al Hasan.
Ten Doeschate came close to becoming only the second batsman of the season to score a century with 14 runs needed for him in the last over, but he was denied enough strike by West Indian Kevon Cooper.
Still he made the most of his chances by hitting a six in the fifth ball, his fourth in the innings, which took him past Anamul Haque’s 89 runs for the second highest individual innings of the tournament.
Given the manner the wicket behaved, his 61-ball unbeaten innings, which also included six fours, has got more significance. Kings made a mistake to judge the wicket and paid the price by losing their top three batsmen inside four overs, which left the onus on Doeschate.
‘I don’t think we were quick enough to assess the wicket,’ he said after the match. ‘We initially thought that it was a good wicket but you cannot guess that when you are 10-3.’