Rangpur Riders kept their hopes of playing in the first qualifier alive after they beat Chattogram Challengers by seven wickets in their penultimate league match of the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League 2023 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur on Wednesday.

Rangpur bowlers made the job easy for them as Haris Rauf and Rakibul Hasan took two wickets each to restrict Chattogram to 132-8 in their 20 overs after Chattogram opted to bat first.

Mrittunjoy Chowdhury and Vijayakanth Viyaskanth made unbeaten 17 and 11 runs respectively in the later part of the Chattogram innings to take their score over the 130-run mark.

Rangpur, in reply, got off to a decent start as Mohammad Naim and Rony Talukdar (28) put up 38 runs before the former was dismissed after making 20 runs.

Rahmanullah Gurbaz, who was playing his first game in the tournament, then made 46 off 30 balls while Tom Kohler-Cadmore and Nurul Hasan Sohan made unbeaten 20 and 15 runs respectively as Rangpur reached 135-3 in 16 overs to complete their sixth successive victory in the tournament.

Rangpur’s win also ended Fortune Barishal’s chances of playing in the first qualifier as they will now play in the eliminator match.

Sylhet Strikers have confirmed the first qualifier berth by earning 18 points from their 12 games while Rangpur and Comilla Victorians have clinched 16 points from 11 matches.

Barishal, which earned 14 points from 11 games, will face Khulna Tigers in the last league match of the ninth edition of the tournament on the same day.