Mohammedan Sporting Club have made a good start in this season’s Dhaka Premier League, winning four out of five games to gain the top spot but their quest will get a stiff resistance when they will face arch-rivals Abahani today at Mirpur. Abahani formed arguably the strongest side of the tournament through the players’ by choice system but right now they are in the sixth spot with just six points from five games and will be desperate to beat MSC.
MSC coach Sohel Islam showed respect to their opponents but he reckoned his team will prevail because of the momentum they have gained so far.
‘I expect a very competitive match on Thursday’, said Sohel on Wednesday.
‘Abahani is a strong side. They have formed a good balanced side. But we will have some advantage as we are in very good rhythm now’, he added.
Sohel however did not thing battle of arch-rivals will create extra pressure and they will take the match just like any other match.
‘We are playing match by match, every match of the league is important,’ he said.
‘Every team in this season has formed strong sides. So there is no chance of complacency, we have to take every match seriously.’
Sohel, who was emphasising on keeping their rhythm that fetched them some wins, also said that their strategy will be based on slow bowlers.
MSC spin triumvirate Enamul Haque jnr, Naeem Islam jnr and Habibur Rahman has been extremely successful as they combined to take 32 wickets so far and received some valuable support from experienced Naeem Islam, who grabbed seven wickets in first five game.
Their only major weakness is their fast bowling and the fact that they lost out to Abahani for the signature of Shahadat Hossain did not help their cause either.
‘You know we are spin-based side. Our spinners are experienced and good. I think we can restrict our opponents with our spin power,’ said MSC coach.
At the same time Sohel also hoped that his two in-form and experienced batsmen Mushfiqur Rahim and Sri Lankan Upul Tharanga will make good impact to help them win the crucial fixture.
‘As they are in good form, we will expect good things from them.
‘If one of the top-order batsmen get good scores it gets easier for the team to win.’
The quality of umpiring is often a matter of concern in domestic league but Sohel thought umpiring has been good in this season so far.
‘We have not faced any umpiring problem so far. The umpiring has been good in this season.’
-With New Age input
