Soumya Sarkar snapped his long sequence of failures in international cricket with an aggressive half-century in the second T20 against New Zealand in Napier today, but his teammates were on a different wavelength altogether as Bangladesh lost by 28 runs in DLS method.
The left-hander opener scored 51 off 27 balls as Bangladesh found hope chasing a revised target of 171 in 16 overs after New Zealand’s innings was forced to end by rain at 173 for five in 17.5 overs.
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Soumya’s innings featured five fours and three sixes and was his third 50+ score in 51 T20I innings.
But the departure of the left-hander ushered the capitulation of the run-chase as the rest of the batters huffed and puffed for little. Mohammad Naim’s 35-ball 38 and Mahmudullah’s 12-ball 21 had some intent, but not the efficacy required to chase down such a tall target.
And the earlier part of the match was not much better for the men in red and green, who witnessed their bowlers waste a good start and fielders remain as sloppy as ever.
The smaller margin of defeat compared to the previous matches, though, would undoubtedly prompt the Tigers to find a lot of positives, going into the last match on Thursday.
Earlier, New Zealand scored 173 runs in 17.5 overs before rain stopped play for the second time, forcing the DLS method into play and it was calculated, after a god-awful delay, that Bangladesh will have to chase 171 runs in 16 overs.
Bangladesh batted for 1.3 overs thinking they were chasing 148 in 16 overs, before the match officials finally came up with new calculations that the men in red and green would need to chase 170 in 16 overs. The target was revised again, late into the match, to 171.
The Tigers would perhaps take this farcical situation as a comic relief in a tour which has ranged from pathetic to tragic for them.
