The match took the form of a derby. The biggest stars of the two teams, Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal, have turned from friends to nemesis after a long time. In this year's BPL, it has reached a new level. Keeping that aside, the social media battle between Rangpur and Barishal was also quite 'classic'. As a result, the heat was spreading before the second qualifier match of the two teams. Tamim Iqbal had the last laugh in that duel. His team Fortune Barishal defeated Rangpur by 6 wickets in the final.
Barishal holds the record for the most number of final appearances among teams that have never won the title. It played three times in the final under different names. Fortune was calling Barishal for the fourth final. Standing in front of such a challenge was Rangpur Riders, who finished the group stage of BPL from the top. In such a situation, Tamim Iqbal's team did not move.
On this day, the luck of the toss also accompanied Tamim's team. Captain Tamim won the toss and sent Rangpur into bat. Rangpur got into trouble at the beginning when they came to bat. Be it the makeshift opener Sheikh Mahdi, or Shakib Al Hasan, who was the talk of the town before the match, none of them could reach double figures; Mohammad Saifuddin returned both. Then when Rony Talukdar was sent back by Kyle Myers, Rangpur was sitting on three wickets in the power play.
Rangpur was knocked out of that match and couldn't come back; three in the power play, two more wickets in the next four overs. One of those wickets went to Jimmy Neesham, who scored 28 off 22 balls for Rangpur's beacon of hope. After his departure, Mohammad Nabi and Captain Nurul Hasan tried a little to save the team from danger. However, both departed in the 15th over bowled by James Fuller.
At that time it was very difficult for Rangpur to touch three figures. The team's run from 77-7 to 149 was stopped by the bat of Shamim Patwari. He scored 59 off 24 balls with 5 fours and sixes. Based on that, Rangpur scored 72 runs in the last 31 balls and got the capital of the fight.
The goal was not big. Barishal sent Tamim Iqbal along with Mehdi Hasan Miraj in the opening pair to chase the target of 150 runs. However, that decision did not work for them. The opening pair didn't last long, Mirage also returned quickly.
There was a lot of talk about Tamim's match-up with Fazal Haq Farooqui. It is not normal for Tamim to be dismissed four times in the last four meetings. However, Tamim did not lose his wicket to him today. But he gave that opportunity less. Miraj was on strike in Farooqui's first over. Then in the third over, Tamim played Farooq's three balls. He picked up 1 run. But he returned to Abu Haider Rony's ball and gave a catch to Nabi at mid-off. In that over, Miraj was also caught in the LBW trap.
The next story is only of Mushfiqur Rahim. He played an innings of 47 runs from 38 balls, batted according to the needs of the team, sometimes played with understanding of the situation. Soumya Sarkar, Kyle Myers, David Millers on the other side. Myers blew the storm over Rangpur. His crucial cameo of 28 off 15 balls kept the team in danger after Soumya Sarkar's departure. Mushfiq was with him! Myers retired just before the win. But Mushfiq did not give up. He took the team to the port of victory, and then he stopped.
That's why the team that has never won a title is one step away from winning the title. Their mission this time in the final against Cumilla on Friday is to upset them.