Dhaka – English all-rounder Ravi Bopara, who is currently playing for the defending Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) champions Rangpur Riders, has said it is very hard to score runs on Mirpur wicket.After losing the opening match of the sixth season to Chittagong Vikings by three wickets on Saturday, Ravi Bopara, who scored the Riders’ highest 44 runs in the match, came up with the observation.
“It was a difficult wicket to play shots. I think we could have scored more runs on that wicket and 130 runs would be a challenging score,” Bopara said.
Rangpur batted first after losing the toss and posted a slim total of 98 runs which eventually proved to be an easy-going target for the Vikings, who won the match in last over with three wickets in hand when Robie Frylinck scored the match-winner by hitting Shafiul Islam a boundary through the cover.
During the last season of BPL in 2017, many batsmen criticised the wicket of Mirpur for some low-scoring affairs. And the new season of the contest also started with the same kind of encounter.
“Wickets in Bangladesh are very different than the rest of the world. Sometimes you need a lot of time to get prepared for the competition. If you come unprepared, it’s a very difficult filed to play especially for a batsman, wickets in the nets are not the same as the middle. It is always difficult to get the idea,” Bopara further said.
Rangpur need to regroup as quickly as possible because of their next match within 24 hours on January 6 where they will play against Khulna Titans at 5:20 pm.
Robie Frylinck, who played the pivotal role for Chittagong’s win taking four wickets for only 14, said: “I was just fortunate to land the ball in the right place and it worked a bit. Our bowling unit bowled really nicely… I was fortunate to get the wickets. Anyone could have got the man-of-the-match.”
Frylinck also said the wicket was not easy to add more runs on the board, and this was the reason behind their long stay at the wicket to chase a small target of 99 runs.
“I didn’t think it was going to be a cakewalk. The wicket got tougher and if you lose a few wickets early, it is tough. I didn’t think it would take that long, but we lost wickets which made it longer. There’s no bonus point in this competition although it doesn’t matter when you win it,” Frylinck added.UNB
