Sheikh Jamal gears up to spoil Abahani’s party
Photo: Collected
|| CF Correspondent ||
Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club is keen to spoil the party of title aspirant Abahani Limited as the two sides takes on each other in the crucial Dhaka Premier League encounter.
A win for Abahani against Sheik Jamal at BKSP will help them clinch the title even though they won’t go ahead in points table with their rivals Legends of Rupganj unless they lose their last game to Prime Bank at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.
While both the sides will be equal on points, run rates will come into play where Abahani is far ahead of Legends but if Legends win the last game and Abahani loses to Sheikh Jamal than DPL will brace a new champion- Legends of Rupganj.
For Sheikh Jamal a win over Abahani will only help them consolidate their standings in the league and end the tournament on the happy note despite not clinching the title even after becoming the highest spenders in the player’s draft.
Abahani was firmly placed to clinch the title but their loss to Sheikh Jamal in their last game of the group phase certainly derailed them in the competition.
Sheikh Jamal’s head coach Sohel Islam told daily sun that they are confident that they can pull against Abahani and end the league on a happy note.
‘’We would naturally play for a win and end the tournament with our head held high,’’ said Sohel.
‘’We have beaten them in the group phase and we are confident that we can put up a similar effort against them in the last game,’’ he said.
Nasir Hossain, who was rejected by Abahani despite leading them to the title last season played a pivotal role in bringing down Abahani through his all round show and according to Sohel he is playing different cricket all together since that game.
He [Nasir Hossain] did not performed to his potential during the initial phase of the league but since that game against Abahani he seems to be playing a different cricket all together,’’ said Sohel.
‘’Certainly there is a certain way you play when you get back into form and it seems he had got back his confidence and coping with the demands without any problem,’’ he said.
Abahani will be hoping that Soumya Sarkar, who returned to form with a blazing century against Rupganj to help them earn the important win and keep their hope alive of clinching the title, can replicate a similar performance against Sheikh Jamal.
Soumya looks confident that he can carry on with the form and help them clinch the title.
‘’All the matches I have played in this premier league, I didn’t perform well in those. Moreover, team management kept their trust in me. I had a thought that today is a big match, if I play well in this match, I will feel good about myself and it will also help my team. I had a plan like this,’’ Soumya told reporters after the match.
‘’If you talk about pressure, there were some that I am not getting runs and I felt bad about this. Few days back I scored runs for the national team. The bitterness was about that I scored runs there but I am not getting runs in the premier league. I felt some pressure because I thought I am not doing things right. I questioned myself a lot about these things. Besides working on my skills ,I thought about these stuffs,’’ he said.
‘’ I didn’t change my batting style all I tried to improve was my concentration level and I tried to play as straight bat and it will be the same in the last game as well,’’ he concluded.
