On Thursday (January 9), Rangpur Riders needed 26 in the last over to beat Fortune Barishal in a BPL 2025 match at the Sylhet International Stadium. They got 30.
Barishal posted 197-5 after Rangpur captain Nurul Hasan won the toss and opted to field at Sylhet. They began cautiously as captain Tamim Iqbal (40 in 34 balls) and Najmul Hossain Shanto (41 in 30) took 61 balls for their opening stand of 81. However, Kyle Mayers hit 61 not out off only 29 balls, while Faheem Ashraf hit out for a six-ball 20 towards the end.
Despite losing Alex Hales early, Iftikhar Ahmed (48 in 36) and Khushdil Shah (48 in 24) kept the Riders in the hunt. Shaheen Shah Afridi conceded only three in the 18th over and took out Iftikhar, leaving Rangpur to get 39 in two overs.
Khushdil then blasted the first two balls of the next over, bowled by Jahandad Khan, for two sixes to bring the target down to 27 in 10 balls. But the match turned again, as Rangpur lost Khushdil, Mahedi Hasan, and Mohammad Saifuddin over the next three legal balls - Mahedi being out obstructing the field - punctuated by a wide.
With seven wickets down, Kamrul Islam Rabbi played out the last ball of the over, leaving Nurul and Kamrul to score 26 off Mayers. Until this point, Nurul had faced only one ball (and scored two), while Mayers’ only over had gone for seven.
Nurul now exploded in an array of strokes, taking Mayers for six, four, four, six, four, six to seal the match. The 26 he chased (and the 30 runs he got) are both the second-most scored in a successful chase in men’s T20. The top spot is held by Rinku Singh’s famous heist in IPL 2023: with 29 to chase, Rinku hit five sixes after Umesh Yadav had run a single.
Highest last-over targets chased in men’s T20s
| Target | Runs | Team | Opposition | Bowler | What happened | Tournament |
| 29 | 31 | Kolkata Knight Riders | Gujarat Titans | Yash Dayal | Umesh Yadav 1 Rinku Singh 66666 | IPL 2023 |
| 26 | 30 | Rangpur Riders | Fortune Barishal | Kyle Mayers | Nurul Hasan 644646 | BPL 2025 |
Note:
- The most runs scored off the last over of a T20 is 34, by Matt Coles of Kent against Somerset in the 2015 T20 Blast. However, the match was a foregone conclusion, as Somerset needed 57 from the over.
- Mpumalanga needed 27 in the last over against Western Province in the 2019-20 CSA Provincial T20 Cup. In a horror over that lasted 11 balls (and featured two sixes and two byes), Mihali Mpongwana conceded 26. However, Western Province won in the Super Over.
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