BPL come back DHAKA

A day's break ensued as the teams travelled from Chittagong to Dhaka, the destination for the final leg of the BPL T20 which will get underway today at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur, with the race for semifinal places heating up as five teams compete for the four spots.

All of the franchises except the hapless Sylhet Royals, who lost all of their seven matches so far, are in with a chance of progressing to the knockout stage. The last match at the Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong, with Barisal Burners winning against Khulna Royal Bengals, blew the tournament wide open.

Barisal's win puts them level with Chittagong Kings and Dhaka Gladiators on eight points, although both have played a match fewer than Barisal's eight. The completion of the first match today, between Chittagong and Dhaka, will make the picture a bit clearer as the winner will join Khulna and Duronto Rajshahi on ten points at the top of the table. As things stand, a team has to accrue at least twelve points, in other words six wins, to be sure of a semifinal spot.

This means that Chittagong and Dhaka have to win at least two of their last three round-robin games, Barisal need to win both their remaining encounters, Khulna need one win from two games while Rajshahi are best placed needing one victory in their three remaining matches to go through.

On current form, that win for Rajshahi may well come in today's evening match against Sylhet, who are hopelessly out of sorts, having already tried three captains in seven outings. But Sylhet coach Stuart Law will remind his charges that even though they are out of the running, they can still impact the tournament by raining on some parades.

If one had to guess based on the teams' performances so far, Khulna and Rajshahi should make it through with the final two spots being fought over by Dhaka, Chittagong and Barisal.

Today's games should make the picture clearer, but an unlikely victory for Sylhet may well muddy matters further.