|| CF Correspondent ||

Defending Champions Rangpur Riders finally halted the winning-march of Chittagong Vikings, the surprising package of this edition’s Bangladesh Premier League (BPL). When very few gave them a shot to play even in the play-off phase, Mushfiqur Rahim’s team is surely destined for that spot, probably as the first team in spite of a 72 runs thrashing to the Riders in their last match on that ill-fated Friday night. Mushfiqur Rahim however talks about the team and the defeat at the hands of Rangpur Riders at their own den immediate after the match. Excerpts of his press conference are here.

When two batsmen of opponent team played this type of innings, how helpless you feel then?

Mushfique: Yeah, obviously we feel helpless, to be honest we didn't expect that much, but when there will be four world class top order batsmen in the opponent team and you know T20 game is all about top order. When top three or four contribute that way then any team can get a big total. We knew that, we have to chase big total in this field and wicket. For the dew factor we decided to bowl first so we can manage that extra 20 runs. I think if our bowlers executed more.... see they are such kind of players who can hit six in a good yorker bowler, even in a bouncer they can hit six. But, at least you have to do that execution. If you come to bowl and give delivery to those place where the batsman is comfortable to hit then it will be difficult to be honest against a the batsmen of that caliber.... when any catch is dropped then you will fall behind or back foot. However, overall I will say that if we stop them within 200-210, then hopefully it would be a different ball game.

Did the injury of Frylinck impact much?

Mushfique:  Yeah, definitely. Because he was in a great pace in both batting and bowling. If you see that in the last seven matches he bowled in the first over and took at least one wicket. Even during the first two overs, he broke through for us which is very important. In today's match it was more important because Gayle went out early. In that situation if we managed to take one or two more wickets then the momentum would be ours. So from that perspective, I will say that it is obviously unlucky and we face difficulties to cover the overs because our genuine bowlers failed to perform well. Hopefully, it will not be serious. Let's see what happens tomorrow morning. He may play tomorrow however. 

What about Yasir's batting?

Mushfique: It is very good. Alhamdulillah how he is batting confidently and playing calculative shots and how he builds up the innings is very good. This is good for us as well, because what I said before that T20 game is all about top order..... so in this place getting runs is always a plus point for the team. I hope he will continue this because in the last couple of matches he got good start, also got good start in today's match. I hope he will convert his innings to 80, 80 plus or 100. It will be beneficial for the team.  

On bowling and fielding performance?

 Mushfique: I think whenever what is needed like any batsman need to score then they click there and in terms of bowling, you can say specially, Robbie, Rahi or Khaled (except today) bowled really well. Overall everyone bowling well and in terms of fielding we did very good in some crucial moments. Most importantly, we are handling the pressure very well. You can see that we won the last three matches in the last over. So it will show that everyone tries to stay calm and deliver based on that. Actually, BPL game is like that, specially T20 format. In this format sometimes luck goes for you and sometimes against. However, our luck is in our side so far. In the eight matches you can see that we won some closel matches, it may not happen all time. Hopefully at least we will win another match within tomorrow so that we can stay in the top one or two position.