Both proved to be very tight contests, with the Titans squeezing past the Kings in the first match, and the Riders withstanding the Dynamites’ challenge in the second.
In the first match, it was the Kings who won the toss and decided to bat. Their innings got off to a poor start when both Mominul Haque and Daniel Bell-Drummond fell to the bowling of Junaid Khan when there was just 6 runs on the board, and Zakir Hasan was out for a duck shortly afterwards.
However, Dwayne Smith and Mushfiqur Rahim put on 76 for the fourth wicket before Smith went for a 62 which included 4 sixes. Rahim then combined with James Franklin in a fifth wicket partnership of 44, before he departed having scored 55, including six sixes.
Franklin batted through to the end, finishing on 29 not out, but the Titans would have been disappointed with the tail as Darren Sammy, Mehidy Hasan and Mohammad Samir all fell for just three apiece, chasing quick runs. In the end, the final total of 166/8 was less than looked likely when Rahim was still batting.
The Titans began their reply slowly, losing both Chadwick Walton and Seekkuge Prasanna cheaply to Mohammed Sami, before a stand of 67 between Rilee Rossouw and Mahmadullah saw them recover.
Roussouw fell to Hasan for 20, and Mahmedullah was bowled by Hossain Ali for 56 when the Titans were still somewhat short of their target. However, the arrival of Ariful Haque at the crease transformed the contest, as he hit 43 not out of just 19 balls to see his side to victory with 4 balls to spare.
In the second match, home team The Dynamites opted to bowl first, as Riders’ opening batsman Chris Gayle hit his second half-century in consecutive matches before falling to the bowling of Mosaddek Hossain for 51, including four sixes.
However, both his fellow-opener Brendon McCullum and Shahriar Nafees fell relatively cheaply to check Rangpur’s progress. Mohammad Mithun hit 22, and there were modest contributions from Mashrafe Mortaza (15), Thisara Perera (15) and Ravi Bopara (12).
Wickets fell regularly, however, and the Riders’ side were all out in the 20th over for 142, as Dhaka captain Shakib Al-Hasan took 5 wickets for the loss of just 16 runs in his bowling spell.
In reply, despite the early loss of Sunil Narine and Al-Hasan the home team seemed to be on track with a third-wicket partnership of 44 between Evin Lewis (28) and Jahurul Islam (29). But when both were out, the Dhaka momentum slowed, and the Riders got on top with frequent wickets.
In spite of this the Dynamites looked set for victory in the final over, when Kieron Pollard hit a six to see the home side needing 4 runs to win off just 3 balls. However, both Pollard and last-man Abu Hider Rony were then bowled off successive balls by Perera to hand the Riders victory by three runs.