Rangpur Riders meted out a consummate thrashing when they beat Khulna Titans by nine wickets with 12 overs to spare in their Bangladesh premier League match at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday.

It is the highest margin of victory in terms of balls remaining in BPL’s four-edition history, eclipsing the Riders' own record of beating Sylhet Superstars with 61 balls remaining in the last edition. After Shahid Afridi and Arafat Sunny claimed seven wickets between them to dismiss Khulna for a paltry 44, Soumya Sarkar (13 off 19 balls) and Mohammad Mithun (run-a-ball 15) took Rangpur home in just eight overs.

The lone success on a wretched day for Khulna

was the wicket of Mohammad Shahzad, who was caught and bowled by Junaid Khan for 13.

Earlier, Afridi and Sunny combined to take seven wickets to bundle out Khulna Titans for just 44 runs in 10.4 overs.

It was the lowest total in the four seasons of the BPL so far and the joint-third lowest in T20 matches overall. The 64 balls that Khulna lasted was also the joint-fourth shortest innings inT20 history.

Rangpur Riders skipper Naeem Islam called correctly at the toss for the day's lone match in the evening, and the Titans' procession of batsmen started from the first over, with Shohag Gazi bowling Nicholas Pooran off the second ball of the innings.

Abdul Mazid was run out in the third over and when Richard Gleeson got rid of Khulna skipper Mahmudullah Riyad in the following over, the signs were clear.

Afridi then came in and snapped up Riki Wessels (bowled), Alok Kapali (leg-before) and Shuvagata Hom (bowled) in the space of two overs -the fifth and the seventh - to have Khulna at 31 for six.

Sunny then repeated the dose, getting rid of Ariful Haque and Junaid Khan in the ninth over. Afridi then came back to pick up his fourth wicket -thatofNurAlam-inthe 10th over to bring Khulna down to 44 for nine. He finished that over, his third, having conceded just 12 runs and taken four wickets.

Sunny then wrapped things up by bowling Mohammad Asghar for even more astonishing figures of three wickets for zero runs in 2.4 overs. In doing so, he became the bowler to bowl the most balls in a T20 innings without conceding a run.

There was only one double-digit score in Khulna's sorry innings, Shuvagata's 12, while four batsmen were dismissed for ducks.