Top half to battle it out today

Five of the current top six teams will feature today in the Dhaka Premier League in what is expected to be an exciting fifth round.

Tamim Iqbal-led Abahani Limited will take on the Legends of Rupganj, who will hope that their key player Soumya Sarkar hits form. At the BKSP in Savar, Sabbir Rahman's Prime Bank Cricket Club will take on Brothers Union, while league leaders Prime Doleshwar Sporting Club will go head-to-head against Victoria Sporting Club.

The top of the table can change quite a bit based on the results of this round. At the moment, Nasir Hossain's Prime Doleshwar leads the table with eight points from four matches. Mohammedan, Abahani and Prime Bank Cricket Club are second, third and fourth respectively with six points each. While Victoria Sporting and Legends of Rupganj are fifth and sixth with five points each.

The highlight of the day though will be the game between Abahani and Rupganj due to take place at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur.

Abahani have looked in good form so far and have clicked whenever the likes of Jubair Hossain and Tamim have performed. They also have a useful foreign player in Uday Kaul, who is their highest run-getter with 169 runs.

They key for them so far though has been Jubair. He has taken 12 wickets in four games and has broken crucial partnerships with his turners on flat tracks. He has taken a six-wicket haul and a four-wicket haul so far. If he can repeat a similar performance, then Rupganj could be in trouble.

While Rupganj have won two out of their four games, it would be fair to say that they are yet to hit their best form. The two games they won were against the weaker teams of the tournament and they are yet to get the services of their star players.

Soumya, for instance, hasn't been in touch and just doesn't seem to be able to make a move on at the top. He has opened at times and has batted at three as well and at the moment seems to be doing a bit of a soul searching. Their key player in this game will be their skipper Mosharraf Hossain. He is a regular performer at the domestic front both with the bat and the ball and in a crunch match like this, you will expect him to give his best.