While they fought neck-to-neck so far in the Dhaka Premier League (DPL) to share the top spot in the point table, one has to be displaced when Abahani Limited and Legends of Rupganj faced off each other today at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium here.
The magnitude of the match made it the most anticipated clash of the season, considering it would decide the course of the championship title as the winner will take the extra advantage before the Super League round starts.
Both Abahani and Legends of Rupganj now have 16 points from nine games but the former stayed at top by better-run-rate. Top six teams of the point table will play the Super League where the points of the group phase will be carried. So the significance of the match is well understood.
“The target is to win the game by playing better cricket,” Abahani coach Khaled Mahmud Sujon said today. “The players are determined and motivated enough. Hopefully we can rise on the occasion.” Abahani won four straight matches before Prime Bank Cricket Club defeated them by 16 runs in the fifth round game. Thereafter Abahani bounced back in style and won four consecutive matches, living up to the reputation of their tag to a red-hot favourite side.
Coincidentally Prime Bank is the club who also beat Legends of Rupganj in the third round of the DPL. And the margin was staggering as they made a mockery with Rupganj to crush them by nine wickets. Rupganj won two matches in a row before that defeat. However after that defeat they won six consecutive matches, to make them a strong contender of the title along with Abahani Limited.
“So far it is a good journey for us. We haven’t taken anything granted but the form with which we are going on, I believe we are capable of beating Abahani,” said Rupganj batsman Shahriar Nafees.
“They (Abahani) are really strong team and showed great consistency. But we are not behind much, we also showed a consistency that made us upbeat ahead of the battle.”
While the domestic powerhouse Abahani were bolstered by most of the national players, Rupganj also have some effective players who regularly thrive on the crunch occasion in the domestic cricket.
On Paper Abahani will be favourite to win the game but on most of the cases, Abahani’s top order apart from Jahrul Islam omee couldn’t fire as it was expected from a much-vaunted batting line up. Rupganj were ahead in this area, as their top order batmen like Mehedi Maruf, Mominul Haque, Mohammad Naim scored consistently.
But what would be the advantage of Abahani is their lower middle order, led by Mohammad Saifuddin who showed his capability to cut through any bowling line up on his day.
Abahani’s bowling line up was also strong. Led by Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, their pacers have the ability to dismantle any kind of strong top order. Considering all the aspects, Abahani thereby will be heavily favourite to win the game, something which their coach Khaled Mahmud also believed.
“The kind of the team we formed, it should win every match quite dominatingly. Though we won maximum matches, unfortunately we can’t dominate the opponents as we expected,” he said.
“As a team Rupganj is quite strong that was evidenced in their performance in the league. But if we can play to our potential, we can beat them,” he concluded.
