Sylhet: Sabbir Rahman struck a superb 85 off 51 balls with five fours and six sixes to guide his team to the highest total of Bangladesh Premier League’s (BPL) ongoing season on Saturday at Sylhet International Stadium against Rangpur Riders, reports the UNB. 

Rangpur won the toss and decided to bowl first against Sylhet, who beat them in their previous encounter. Sylhet posted 194/4 and surpassed Dhaka Dynamites’ score of 192 against Khulna Titans. 

Sabbir has been struggling with his form. In the previous six matches, his highest was 20 runs and he has failed to touch two-digit scores in three encounters. But the Sylhet never lost faith in him.

Sabbir opened the innings with Liton Das and they added only 13 runs. Liton, who scored a fifty in the previous game, failed this time. But Sabbir was imperious in the field. 

In the second wicket stand, he added 39 runs with Afif Hossain. Afif fell for 19 off 11 balls. After his dismissal, Sabbir and David Warner added 51 runs on the board. But the biggest stand of Sylhet came in the fifth wicket stand of Sabbir and Nicholas Pooran. 

They posted 82 runs before Sabbir’s dismissal in the first ball of last over which was bowled by Shafiul Islam.

Along the way, Sabbir hit 85 and surpassed the previous best innings of Rilee Rossouw who struck 83 against Dhaka Dynamites. 

Rangpur captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza took two wickets and Shafiul bagged one.