Isakhil's century gives Noakhali a fighting capital

Isakhil's century gives Noakhali a fighting capital

Noakhali Express, who are playing in the BPL for the first time, have already been eliminated from the play-offs. However, the team got a great opportunity to make their last match memorable. Afghan youngster Hasan Isakhil's record-breaking century helped Noakhali score 173 runs for 2 wickets in the stipulated 20 overs against Rangpur Riders. Liton Das' Rangpur needs to score 174 runs to keep their hopes of playing in the first qualifier alive.

Rangpur Riders captain Liton Das won the toss in Mirpur on Sunday and decided to bowl first. Initially, Rangpur's bowlers held Noakhali's top order in a controlled bowling. Noakhali could only score 15 runs in the first 4 overs. They lost 1 wicket in the 6 overs of the power play and scored only 33 runs. Rahmatullah, who was playing his first match in the BPL, became a victim of Nahid's runner by scoring 9 runs in 10 balls. After that, Zaker Ali also quickly returned. Noakhali managed to score only 47 runs for 2 wickets at the end of the innings.

Isakhil and Haider Ali started to come out of their shell after the 11th over. Especially after the 15th over, these two took a real storm on the Rangpur bowlers. 75 runs came in the last 5 overs. They made a century partnership in just 67 balls for the unbroken third wicket.

In the current BPL season, Hasan Isakhil, son of Afghan great Mohammad Nabi, was out for 92 runs in his first match and was in a hurry to score a century. He did not make that mistake again today. He got 'life' by being caught by Iftekhar Ifti at mid-wicket for a personal 86 runs. Then he hit sixes in the first two balls of the last over to score his first century in T20I career in 70 balls.

This is the first century by an Afghan batsman in the history of BPL. This is also the second century after Nazmul Hossain Shanta in the current season. In the end, Isakhil remained unbeaten on 107 runs off 72 balls with the help of 10 sixes and 4 fours. Haider Ali also remained unbeaten, giving him worthy company. The duo's devastating partnership gave Noakhali, who were eliminated from the tournament, a challenging total of 173 runs.