In a bid to clinch the BCB President’s Cup trophy, Mahmudullah XI will lock horns with Najmul XI in the final at the Sher-e—Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur on Sunday. The match is scheduled to begin at 1:30 pm. Today’s match will be telecasted live on Bangladesh Television (BTV).
The ongoing BCB President's Cup final, originally was scheduled to be held on Friday. However, later it was rescheduled to Sunday. The decision was taken in light of the inclement weather forecast for the past two days.
BCB President’s Cup was organized by Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) after the Sri Lanka tour got postponed. However, it is safe to say that the tournament has been a success so far, especially for bowlers.
In the group phase, Najmul XI and Mahmudullah XI battled twice and both times the former was triumphant over the latter. However, now it is a different match altogether and everyone expect a tight encounter ahead of today’s final.
Najmul XI moved to the final as group champions in three-team tournament. They acquired three wins in the group phase and lost just one. On the other hand, Mahmudullah XI won two games. The other team of the tournament Tamim Iqbal-led Tamim XI showed a frustrating performance as they won just one and was eliminated from the final race straightway.
What will be in Najmul XI’s favour is that they won their both matches against Mahmudullah XI in the group phase. Najmul XI chased down Mahmudullah XI’s 196 runs in the first match with utmost ease to seal four wickets victory before losing to Tamim XI by 42 runs. They however came back strongly and thanks to Afif Hossain’s 98 runs piled up 264-8, tournament’s highest score against Mahmudullah XI in the return-leg match. Their bowlers later shot the opponent out for 133 runs to seal a gigantic 131 runs victory for the side. They won their last match against Tamim XI by 7 runs.
Mahmudullah XI so far had crossed 200 runs figure only once in the tournament. But still they are in the final, thanks to their win against Tamim XI in both games. However given the performance in the group phase, Nazmul XI will be top favourite but in one-day cricket the performance of certain days is always counted.
Mahmudullah Riyad knows that well and vowed to come up with all guns blazing in the most important game of the tournament.
