The Bangladesh Premier League enters its playoffs stage as table toppers and defending champions Fortune Barishal will take on Chittagong Kings in the first qualifier while Rangpur Riders will face Khulna Tigers in the eliminator match on Monday.
The eliminator will begin at 1:30pm at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium while the first qualifier starts at 6:30pm at the same venue.
The winner of the first qualifier will directly book a place in the final while the loser of the eliminator match will be knocked out. The winner of the eliminator will then take on the loser of the first qualifier on Wednesday to emerge as the second finalist.
The first qualifier between Barishal and Chittagong will be a rematch of the last group-stage match on Saturday, where the latter emerged as the winner to topple Rangpur from the second place in the points table.
That was Barishal鈥檚 first defeat in six matches.
The first qualifier will be a fight between two consistent bowling line-ups. Chittagong (7.94) and Barishal (8.04), respectively, have conceded the least number of runs per over so far.
However, in their latest meeting, Barishal conceded 206 and failed to chase that down. Their captain, Tamim Iqbal, said that they were unable to execute their plans with the bowling and hoped to put up a better show in the next match.
Chittagong, though, are one of the balanced sides of the tournament with almost all bases covered. They haven鈥檛 had big names in terms of foreign recruits, but the likes of Graham Clark and Haider Ali delivered for them.
Barishal, on the other hand, were still unsure about the foreign player鈥檚 arrival. They reportedly signed New Zealand pacer Adam Milne, but he鈥檚 been part of his respective franchise in ILT20.
The eliminator match will be a huge test for Rangpur Riders, who qualified for the playoffs first. They won eight consecutive matches at the beginning but are now on a losing streak as they lost their last four matches in a row.
Finding their backs cornered, Rangpur now want to break the shackles in their do-or-die match.
鈥楴ow our challenges are bigger, as you get two chances if you are in the top two. Now we are in the knockouts, a do-or-die situation. Let鈥檚 see what happens,鈥� said Rangpur鈥檚 off-spinner Mahedi Hasan.
Rangpur has been struggling with its foreign recruits鈥� availability. They said that they were in contact with players like David Warner, Tim David, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, and Asif Ali. But none of them have been confirmed.
Khulna, on the other hand, has been under the radar almost throughout the tournament. Having had to win their last two matches to stay in contention, and so they did.
Their captain, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, has been leading them from the front both with bat and ball. It will be vital for Khulna whether they get a good start.