Khulna Titans vs. Rangpur Riders: 25th Match Preview

The 25th match of Bangladesh Premier League is set to be played between Khulna Titans taking on Rangpur Riders on Tuesday. This match will be second encounter between them in this tournament where Rangpur Riders defeated Khulna Titans during the first phase of the tournament. Can Titans take revenge for their loss in first phase by winning this match?

Khulna Titans are placed at the bottom of table things are not improving for them they have managed to win just one match that also against Rajshahi Kings in their seven matches. Titans are on two match losing streak. Batting performance of Titans has been improved a lot but came lately, while their bowling has been so expensive that their team was unable to defend 180+ total twice in the last two matches. To stay alive in this tournament Titans need to win all next five matches so that they can get a ticket to enter in to the playoffs. To win this match in batting department, the onus of scoring runs be on Junaid Siddique, Mahmudullah and David Wiese. To stop batsmen of Raiders from scoring runs in bowling department, Taijsul Islam and Lasith Malinga will have the role picking wickets at the regular interval. One can few expect few changes in the team after several losses.

Rangpur Riders has ended three match losing streak when they beat Sylhet Sixers in high scoring match which they won by eight runs. Rider's middle-order has become more powerful and strong after the arrival of AB de Villiers in the team who smashed 34 runs in his first of this tournament. Riders are showing their all-round performance with both bat and ball. Definitely Riders goanna give tough competition to Titans. In batting department, the onus of scoring runs will be Rilee Rossouw, Alex Hales and Ab de Villiers. The responsibilities of picking wickets will be on Mashrafe Mortaza and Shafiul Islam, both are top second and third wicket takers in this tournament. There are no possibilities of making changes with the winning combinations.

Player Recommendations:

Taylor is an aggressive and one of the finest hitter of the ball who plays at the middle-order for Titans. He has just played first in this tournament which came in his previous match were he showed his talent by blasting 28 runs. He has great ability to fire quick runs. The 32 year-old has an experience of playing 135 T20 matches, were he has scored 3003 runs with an average of 27.05. He is the wicket-keeper to look out for against Riders.

Batsman: Rilee Rossouw (9 credits)

Rilee Rossouw is currently the leading run-scorer of the tournament. A free-stroking left handed batsmen has scored 349 runs in just seven matches with an average of 87.25 and has a hefty strike-rate of 144.21. He already registered four half centuries to his name and he is in the form of his life. Rossouw has smashed all around the ground with 32 fours and 13 sixes so far in this tournament and many more to come. He is the batsmen that no one wants to miss in their teams because the 29 year-old so far has played 146 T20 matches in his career, where he has scored 3567 runs with an average of 28.02 and hitting at the strike-rate of 132.25. At just 9 credits he is the real gem that he should be in your team by looking at the form.

All-rounder: Mahmudullah (10 credits)

The captain and middle-order batsman of Khulna Titans who also bowls handy off-breaks and has the ability to break the partnership of batsmen. In his previous match he has played an impact knock against Chittagong by scoring 50 runs but could not win the match. He is the only batsman who has been in good form for Khulna Titans and point to be noted that he also features in the list of top 10 leading run-scorer list of this tournament by scoring 151 runs in his seven matches with an average of 21.57, at the strike-rate of 124.79. With his off-break bowling he also picked four wickets so far. The 32 year-old has played 191 T20 matches, were he has scored 3380 runs with an average of 24.49 and also picked 94 wickets with the economy of 7.10. He is one of the best all-rounder to have in your team.

Bowler: Mashrafe Mortaza (9 credits)

Shaiful Islam and Mashrafe Mortaza are two best Rangpur Raiders bowlers. Both features second and third leading wicket-takers list in this tournament with 13 and 12 wickets respectively. Here we are picking Mashrafe Mortaza over Shaiful Islam because of his ability to bat and fire some quick runs whenever and wherever the team needs. As we witnessed that he opened the innings with bat at the top-order for Riders, not only that he has picked twelve scalps in just seven matches at an economy of 6.96, while getting a break-through at an strike-rate of 15.66 balls. So, we can expect him to pick at least two wickets against Titans. The right-arm pacer so far has played 143 T20s in his career, were he has picked 128 wickets at an economy of 7.51 and also scored 948 runs. He is a kind of bowler that everyone like to have in their team.

Captain: Rilee Rossouw

Vice-captain: Mahmudullah