In a bid to retain the title, Fortune Barishal will take on Chittagong Kings in the grand final of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) tomorrow (Friday) at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium. The match starts at 7 PM.
Tamim Iqbal-led Barishal is considered as outright favourite for the second consecutive title after showing a consistent performance throughout the tournament.
If Barishal can retain the title, they will be the third team after Dhaka and Comilla franchise to win more than one BPL trophy. Both Dhaka and Comilla franchise won BPL trophy thrice.
Rangpur, Rajshahi and Barishal are the other three teams apart from the duo to clinch BPL trophy. Chittagong Kings moved to the final only once that too in 2013 but lost to eventual champions Dhaka Gladiators.
They would have to overcome a very strong team to secure their maiden BPL title.
Barishal ended the group phase as top topper after winning nine from 12 matches. In Qualifier-1 game too, they won with ease to confirm the final straightway.
Out of three, they conceded two defeats to Rangpur Riders and one against eventual finalist Chittagong Kings.
However Barishal and Chittagong faced off thrice before the final with the Tamim-led side winning two, including the Qualifer-1. In the first-leg match, Barishal beat Chittagong by six wickets before tasting defeat in the second-leg match by 24 runs.
While Barishal ended as table topper, Chittagong finished at second spot, courtesy to their victory against Barishal in the last match of the group. But in Qualifer-1, the match turned out to be a mismatch with Bairshal just crushing them by nine wickets in a one-sided contest.
Chittagong then had to play the Qualifier-2 game in which they faced off Khulna Tigers, the team which won the Eliminator game against Rangpur Riders.
The Qualifier-2 game turned out to be the best match in this season with Chittagong prevailing in the thrilling contest by two wickets, confirming the victory in the last ball.
Khulna posted a decent 163-6 after recovering from a shaky start and Chittagong looked to win the game with ease. But the team of the port city experienced a collapse, halfway through the chase, leaving them a requirement of 15 runs for a victory in the last over.
Tailenders Arafat Sunny and Aliss Al Islam did the unthinkable with the later confirming the victory, smashing a four in the last ball.
The nerve-wrecking victory is believed to lift their confidence ahead of the final against a team, that has all ingredients to be champions.
Source: BSS
bd-pratidin/Rafid
