New Age | Jan 07,2020
Cumilla Warriors batsmen Dawid Malan and Soumya Sarkar (R) celebrate a run during their Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League match against Sylhet Thunder at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Tuesday. — BCB photo
Soumya Sarkar struck his second half-century of the tournament as Cumilla Warriors beat Sylhet Thunder by five wickets to keep their play-off hopes alive in the Bangladesh Premier League in Dhaka on Tuesday.
Soumya hit an unbeaten 53 off 30 balls after David Malan made 58 as Cumilla reached 142-5 in 19.5 overs after restricting Sylhet to a modest 141-5 after opting to bowl first at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.
The win took Cumilla’s tally to 10 points from as many matches, which means they can still secure a berth in the top-four provided they win their remaining two matches- both against Khulna Tigers.
Sylhet ended their campaign with their 11th defeat in 12 matches – the worst ever performance by a team in BPL history.
Cumilla had Malan and Soumya to thank for their victory after a shaky start, which saw them losing first three wickets for 32 runs.
Off-spinner Nayeem Hasan took all three wickets with his brilliant opening spell before Malan and Soumya put 72 runs for the fourth wicket to turn the match.
The pair took their time to get settled before hitting Delwar Hossain for three sixes, two by Malan and one by Soumya, in the 14th over of the innings, which effectively swung the momentum towards Cumilla’s way.
Ebadot Hossain dismissed Malan two overs later after the Englishman scored his second successive fifty in the league – a 49-ball melody, which featured two fours and as many sixes.
Soumya looked confident on the other end and finished the game off with a four off Johnson Charles towards extra cover, which also completed his fifty- his second in the tournament and third in BPL career.
Malan showered Soumya with praise.
‘He did fantastically well. To me, he was the man of the match…He came out in a really tough time, when we were in big trouble, our scoring rate was four per over, he came in and played a very mature innings,’ Malan said of Soumya.
‘I think he has improved so much and he is learning the game, his thinking about the game is brilliant.’
Abdul Mazid, earlier, made highest 45 runs while Charles made 26 off 15 balls but Sylhet always looked a disorganised unit, who were just happy to finish their embarrassing journey in the tournament.
‘Any captain will be upset, but what can I do? its’s just our disgracing performance by the team. .wWe can judge ourselves and know what next to be done. I will go back home and work on it,’ said a dejected Sylhet captain Andre Fletcher.
Al Amin Hossain took highest two wickets for Cumilla.
