Chittagong Vikings Coach Simon Helmot converses with Rangpur Riders coach Tom Moody ahead of their respective play-off matches at the National Cricket Academy in Mirpur on Sunday. — New Age photo
Defending champions Rangpur Riders will be hoping for the resurgence of Chris Gayle when they face Comilla Victorians in the first qualifier of the sixth Bangladesh Premier League at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur today.
The match is scheduled to start at 6:30pm and GTV and Maasranga TV will broadcast the match live.
Rangpur’s maiden BPL triumph in the previous edition of the tournament was mostly orchestrated by Gayle, who was the highest run-getter with 485 runs that featured two brilliant unbeaten hundreds in the eliminator and final.
Rangpur will take the field without their in-form foreign players – AB de Villiers and Alex Hales, who left Dhaka for different reasons and will be badly looking to Gayle, who was yet to make his mark in the tournament.
Englishman Hales was ruled-out of the tournament with a shoulder injury while de Villiers left the side after finishing his contracted six matches for the franchise.
After de Villiers’ arrival, Rangpur looked like a completely different side as they won all their six matches in which the Protea batsman was involved and finished the league-phase on top of the points-table despite winning just two of their first six matches.
However, they still have Gayle, who can blow away any opposition on his day despite having a lacklustre outing in this year’s BPL, making only 142 runs in 10 matches at an average of 15.77.
Rangpur also have high hopes riding on their South African recruit Rilee Rossouw, who is the highest run-getter in BPL 6 with 514 runs in 11 matches at an average of 85.66, with skipper Mashrfee bin Murtaza, Farhad Reza and Shafiul Islam forming a commendable bowling attack.
‘Every game is big game. Even the group games were important too. The important thing is ‘Do the same thing every time’. Just be consistent with your preparation and you will get your result,’ Rangpur’s English all-rounder Ravi Bopara told reporters in Mirpur on Sunday.
‘Our plan will be the same. If we bowl first, we will keep them in the lowest possible. If we bat first, we will get a defendable score. Let see what happens,’ he added.
Comilla, on the other hand, will come into this match after conceding a nine-wicket defeat against Rangpur in their last league match where they were bundled out for just 72 runs in Mirpur on Saturday.
Comilla had suffered a similar fate in their first league match against Rangpur, where they were bowled-out for 63 runs and lost the match by the same margin.
But their depth in the batting and bowling department make them a strong candidate for making it to the final.
Comilla didn’t take part in any practice session on Sunday as they played consecutive matches on Friday and Saturday.
The winner of the match will directly qualify for the final on February 8 and the losing side will face the winner of the eliminator match on February 6 to determine the other finalist.
Source: New Age.
