Cooper, Mahmudullah lead Barisal Bulls to win over Rangpur Riders

Barisal Bulls have sealed a scintillating 13-run win over Rangpur Riders to bag their first points in the 2015 Bangladesh Premier League.

Mahmudullah played a captain's knock to help the Bulls recover from a disastrous start and post a modest 155 for 9 after being put to bat first at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on Monday.

The Riders, who won the opening match against Chittagong Vikings in a last-ball thriller on Sunday, had been on course for the most part of the chase.

That was until Kevon Cooper's five-wicket haul which took the match away from them.

Opener Soumya Sarkar (17 off 7 balls) tried to swing his bat at everything at the outset of the chase but departed chasing Mohammad Sami outside offstump in the third over.

Captain Shakib Al Hasan (6 off 12 balls) perished two overs later as Cooper's first scalp before Lendl Simmons and Misbah-ul-Haq both went back for 19 to leave their team under pressure, on 66 for 4 in the 12th over.

Mohammad Mithun (55) and Thisara Perera (17) then regained momentum with a 68-run stand off 39 balls.

Mithun took his team to a comfortable position with 23 runs needed off 12 balls.

The Riders were pegged back in the penultimate over when Perera ran himself out before Sami took out Mithun.

Mithun, who scored his half-century off 27 balls, bedecked his 32-ball innings with five boundaries and two sixes.

Misbah had told reporters after their victory on Sunday that it is possible to score 15 runs per over in the Mirpur track and that is what the Riders needed in the last over.

But some clever bowling by Man-of-the-Match Cooper allowed them no more than 1 run in the 19th over - that too, at the expense of four wickets.

Darren Sammy (2), Muktar Ali (0) and Abu Jayed Chowdhury (0) fell to Cooper's wily bowling while Al-Amin junior (4) ran himself out. 
The Caribbean pacer returned 5 for 15 in 4 overs. Sami took two wickets.

Earlier, Shakib and Perera had reduced the Bulls to 15 for 4.

The Sri Lankan allrounder struck twice to send back Rony Talukdar (1) and Shahriar Nafees (1) in the second over.

After Shakib forced an edge from Brendan Taylor (1) to get him caught behind, Perera struck again in his next over, trapping Sabbir Rahman (11) in front.

Mahmudullah and Nadif Chowdhury (30) arrested the slide and the slowly gained momentum. 

The skipper scored 82 runs off 68 balls with Nadif before Shakib got the former in the 16th over by tossing the ball up and drawing him forward to hole out at deep midwicket.

Mahmudullah's 43-ball innings was laced with five fours and six.

Shakib also dismissed Nadif later in the over to put the pressure back on the Bulls but Cooper and Sami counterattacked and took their team past 150.

The Bulls added 50 runs in the last four overs as Cooped cracked 21 off 13 balls while Sami hammered 15 off 5.

Shakib and Perera took three wickets each.