Home ›› 12 Feb 2023 ›› Sport
Coming as the league toppers, Sylhet Strikers now seek a spot in the final as they face the defending champions Comilla Victorians, who are now on a nine-match winning streak, in the first qualifier match of Bangladesh Premier League cricket at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur on Sunday.
The winner of the game will move on to final straightaway while the looser will get another chance to make it to the final battling past the winner of Eliminator game between Rangpur Riders and Fortune Barishal.
Sylhet strikers has been the most consistent team throughout the tournament as they have were the first side to qualify for the play-offs and eventually ended the group stages with the highest points and the best net run rate. They earned 18 points from nine wins out of 12 matches.
Comilla on the other hand, struggled at the first round of the tournament as they finished the first Dhaka phase without a win and gone on to loosing straight three opening games.
But as the tournament went on, Comilla made an amazing come back and won nine matches straight to secure their place in the top two to qualify for the qualifiers. They come to the play-offs as the second earning the same points as Sylhet, but felt behind on net run rate. Sylhet had a NRR of +0.737 while Comilla had +0.723.
Sylhet might not have been considered as one of the favourites by many, but they out performed every other team depending on the local performers like Towhid Hridoy, Najmul Hossain Shanto and Rejaur Rahman Raja, Towhid and Shanto are amongst the top three run getters of the tournament so far.
Their foreign recruits are also doing their job well. South African all-rounder George Linde recently joined the team. Talking to the press he said they were well prepared for the upcoming game.
“We are prepared pretty well, we have a good pace, when your team wins, you have a good pace and always finds way to play good cricket. We look forward to it”
He joined the team at the last moment. When asked about the pitch and adjusting to the condition, he said, “I watched the game, I saw there was turn, it was slow, and had a bit of bounce which eventually helped me because I’m used to south African conditions where we get a lot of those. It’ s almost same, I think I can play my regular game, just need to adjust a thing or two.”
I’ve played a lot of T20s, I’ve played around the world, played in Pakistan, in India, so I think the conditions are similar in a way. I feel like I don’t have to do too much to adjust, just play my game”
Ahead of the match Sylhet coach Rajin Saleh said, “They proved how strong team they are! They won nine matches in a row, so it will be very tough to beat them. We have to play our best.”
