Dhaka – Rangpur Riders’ English all-rounder Ravi Bopara believes they have to face a tough time in the middle while playing the first Qualifier of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) on Monday at 6:30pm at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium against Comilla Victorians.
The Riders took their steps to the playoffs being number one in the points table. They have acquired 16 points in the 12 league stage matches. The Victorians have also secured 16 points but they are behind the Riders who have a better run-rate.
In the two matches of the league stage they met each other, the Riders came up the winners against the Victorians. In both of the occasions, the Victorians lost by a big margin of nine wickets. Despite this huge wins, Ravi Bopara believes they have to face a challenging time in the Qualifier.
“They have some psychological advantage. They have some good and experienced players who have played in this situation before. I think that makes a difference, and we expect a very tough game tomorrow (Monday),” Bopara told reporters on Sunday while getting prepared for the first Qualifier.
But still, the English all-rounder, who is one of the regular campaigners in BPL, thinks the match is nothing more than other matches to him.
“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’ll get your result,” he further said.
The Riders started the new season of BPL losing five of their first six matches and they were in the fear of getting eliminated. But they bounced back in the last six matches as they won all of them on the trot.
Ravi believes they are capable of replicating the same results in the Qualifier. He thinks 150-160 runs will be enough for them to defend if they bat first. Or restricting the opponent to 120 could earn them an expected result if they have to bowl first.
Rilee Rossouw, the South African recruit of the Riders, has scored 514 runs in 13 matches to help the team qualify for the playoffs. Along with him, Alex Hales and AB de Villiers were the most run-getters for the Riders scoring 304 and 247 respectively. While they were the batting-heroes of the Riders, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza and Farhad Reza did the same act with the ball taking 19 and 17 wickets respectively.
In the Qualifier against the Victorians, Riders supporters can only rely on Rilee since Alex and AB will not be available in the Qualifier. While Alex went back to London due to an injury, AB left the Riders for some family reasons.
On the other hand, Victorians are keen to rewrite their victorious story. They have won the title of BPL back in 2016 but since then, they have never played any final. But now, Imrul Kayes-led team got a golden chance to rewrite the story.
The winner of the Qualifier will storm the February 8 final and the losing side will get another chance when they face the winner of the Eliminator, in which, Dhaka Dynamites will take on Chittagong Vikings at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium at 1:30pm on Monday.
The Victorians have heavily relied on Tamim Iqbal (309), Evin Lewis (196) and Shamsur Rahman (176). They have scored ample of runs for them to qualify to the playoffs while Mohammad Saifuddin (17) and Shahid Afridi (16) were the best bowlers for them.
