Rangpur thrash Khulna in final to retain NCL T20 title

The NCL T20 final did not quite live up to expectation that the tournament was set to spark off as defending champions Rangpur made short work of Khulna with an eight-wicket victory at Sylhet International Cricket Stadium on Sunday to retain the title.

The T20-like scores that were seen in the first edition of the tournament last year in abundance, was missing this time around with many players missing the tournament due to national duties. Akbar Ali's Rangpur however ticked the right boxes to retain the title.

Experienced Nasir Hossain, who had opened against Chattogram in the qualifier on Friday, was on the mark again, hitting a 31-ball 46, laced with five fours and a six to set up the 137-run chase for Rangpur. Along with Jahid Javed, Nasir stitched together a 61-run stand before he fell in the 12th over. Experienced Naeem Islam (40 off 32) and skipper Akbar Ali (19 off 15) made short work of the chase with an unbroken 54-run stand to hand Rangpur the game with three overs to spare.

Earlier, Khulna were stuttering at 69 for 5 after being sent to bat. Nasum Ahmed drew first blood, removing Imranuzzaman for naught in the first overs before Anamul Haque fell to a run out after a misunderstanding with Soumya Sarkar.
Soumya himself struggled to get going in the Powerplay with Nasir keeping a tight leash on him. In the end the left-hander fell for a timid 22-ball 8. Skipper Mohammad Mithun's 32-ball 44 and a cameo 13-ball 24 from Mrittunjoy helped Khulna to 136 for 8.