The face-off between Mashrafe Mortaza and Shakib Al Hasan, the former and the new skipper of Bangladesh T20 cricket team, is going to draw the curtain on one of the most popular T20 leagues around the globe―Bangladesh Premier League. The league included a round-robin group stage among the eight teams alongside 2 qualifiers and 1 eliminator in the playoff phase among the top four teams.

As Rangpur Riders take on Dhaka Dynamites, one really cannot predict the outcome of the match. These two equally powerful and balanced side cannot be differentiated by their group stage performances as well.

Although the initial round’s points table will tell you that Dhaka Dynamites were on the 2^nd position, whereas Rangpur Riders were on the 4^th, these teams met twice in the group stage following the round-robin and the clash between the two resulted in both winning it once.

Rangpur Riders came out victorious in the first battle by beating Dhaka Dynamites by 3 runs, while the second contest between the two was won by the mighty Dhaka side as they defeated Rangpur by 43 runs.

Rangpur Riders, being the 4^th team had to overcome the hurdle of the eliminator, where they crushed the Khulna Titans by 8 wickets with 28 balls remaining, thanks to Gayle’s innings of 122 off 51 balls.

Then another hurdle on path, the second qualifier, was also won by Rangpur against the leader of the points table, Comilla Victorians last night. In their victory of 36 runs, 14 six-hitter of the previous match, Chris Gayle, could not add much to the scoreboard in the second qualifier.

However, Johnson Charles scored a match-winning ton while Brandon McCullum also played a splendid innings of 78 runs facing just 46 deliveries and found his tune back.

Dhaka Dynamites had to win their first qualifier against Comilla Victorians and wait for one of the two (RR & CV) teams to get knocked out. However, their wait for the victor had been prolonged for a day due to the interruption of that match by rain.

The players of Rangpur Rider had no room for rest at all, as they have to go on the ground for the third consecutive day. Today, they seem to have a better ground for achieving a triumph over the Dhaka Dynamites as all of their batsmen are in a good form and their skipper Mashrafe is ready to do whatever it takes.

That does not mean that one can bet his house on this team as their opponent team is the three times winner (twice as Dhaka Gladiators) of the league since its inception, the Dhaka Dynamites, who will also put everything on stake to retain the title. Their leader, the no. 1 all-rounder of t20 Internationals—Shakib Al Hasan—has been the leading wicket-taker so far, can also be a big game changer for his team as well.

The expected line-up for the two sides are as follows:

Dhaka Dynamites (expected)—Mehedi Maruf, Evin Lewis, Joe Denly, Kieron Pollard, Shakib Al Hasan (capt), Shahid Afridi, Mosaddek Hossain, Sunil Narine, Jahurul Islam (wk), Abu Hider, Mohammad Saddam

Rangpur Riders (expected)—Chris Gayle, Johnson Charles, Brendon McCullum, Mohammad Mithun (wk), Ravi Bopara, Nahidul Islam, Mashrafe Mortaza (capt), Sohag Gazi, Isuru Udana, Nazmul Islam, Rubel Hossain