BPL 2017, Eliminator, Preview: Khulna Titans take on Rangpur Riders

The first playoff game of the on-going season of BPL will be the eliminator and the two teams taking each other on in that game will be Khulna Titans and Rangpur Riders which finished at the 3rd and the 4th positions respectively in the points table in the league stage of the tournament.

Khulna would consider themselves mighty unlucky to miss out on the second spot because they were leveled with Dhaka Dynamites in terms of the no. of points, but because their net run rate was a fraction lower than that of the Dynamites, they slipped down to the third position and are facing a must-win situation now.

A no. 2 finish would have meant Khulna would have had two bites at the cherry which isn’t the scenario now. If they lose the eliminator, that will be the end of the story. They, however, won’t be thinking what it could have been and will rather be focused on what lies ahead. They would want to win this one and advance to the Qualifier 2 where they would face the winner of the Qualifier 1.

Rangpur Riders, the other team in the eliminator, has had a bit of a mixed big in the tournament and they, at one stage, were in danger of not even qualifying for the playoffs. However they made it to top 4 eventually and would like to go all the way now.

Khulna Titans (Predicted XI): Mahmudullah (C), Mosharraf Hossain, Benny Howell, Michael Klinger, Carlos Brathwaite, Ariful Haque, Abu Jayed, Nicholas Pooran (WK), Nazmul Hossain Shanto, Afif Hossain, Mohammad Irfan

Rangpur Riders (Predicted XI): Abdur Razzak, Brendon McCullum (C), Shahriar Nafees, Ravi Bopara, Samuel Badree, Rubel Hossain, Adam Lyth, Johnson Charles, Mohammad Mithun (WK), Ebadat Hossain, Nahildul Islam

Focus will be on

Carlos Brathwaite (Khulna)

The West Indies T20 skipper is a big game player and to testify that, one doesn’t need to go any further back than the final of the last World T20 Championship which he won for West Indies in a crunch situation in the last over by smashing four sixes in a row off the bowling of Ben Stokes. Not only is he a big hitter down the order, he is a very good T20 bowler too and is very much capable of making a difference with the ball.

Brendon McCullum (Rangpur)

McCullum might not be the same force that he once was, but he still remains one of the fiercest hitters of the Cricket ball in the shortest format of the game. Once he gets going at the top of the order, he can take the game away from the opposition within a few overs. While the New Zealander hasn’t had a great tournament yet and he doesn’t feature even in top 10 in the list of the leading run scorers of the tournament, he would want to bring out his A game in this key encounter and play a match defining innings for his team.

Team composition

Khulna Titans

Michael Klinger will be vital for Khulna up the order. He will open the innings and Khulna would want him to play an anchor’s role and let the other batsmen bat around him. Mahmudullah who will bat at 4 and the wicketkeeper Nicholas Pooran who will bat at 5 or 6 will have an important role to play too as they would like to build an ideal platform for Brathwaite to launch himself in the death overs.

Khulna’s bowling attack will be led by the Pakistan international Mohammad Irfan who is the tallest fast bowler going around in the business. He can be lethal with the new ball and Khulna would expect a few early breakthroughs from him to rip into Rangpur’s batting line up.

Rangpur Riders

Rangpur will have two devastating players opening the batting in the form of McCullum and Johnson Charles and following them at 3 will be Adam Lyth who hits the ball hard as well and is known to score his runs quickly. Ravi Bopara and Shahriar Nafees bring some class and experience in the middle order, while the wicketkeeper Mohammad Mithun and Nahidul Islam will have the job of finishing the innings.

Rangpur’s bowling is a bit spin heavy as it depends on its wily spinners Samuel Badree and Abdur Razzak who have got truckloads of experience in the shortest format of the game and can bowl both with the new as well as the old ball.