By Sports Desk, The CNN :
Despite opener Soumya Sarkar’s brilliant century, Bangladesh team lost the ODI series against New Zealand with one match remaining. The Tigers lost to New Zealand by 7 wickets in the second ODI of the series. Bangladesh lost the first match by 44 runs due to rain.
Bangladesh scored 291 runs in 49.5 overs after Soumya’s 22 fours and two sixes for 169 runs on Wednesday (December 20). In response, New Zealand confirmed the series with 22 balls and 7 wickets in hand. Henry Nicholls scored 95 and Will Young played an innings of 89 runs for the Kiwis. Even though the team lost, Bangladesh’s Soumya was selected as the man of the match. After winning the toss in Nelson, the Kiwis invited Bangladesh to bat first. The two openers of Bangladesh, Soumya and Vijay, started batting cautiously. However, in the fifth over, Vijay returned to 2 runs by catching Tom Latham at slip after punching the first ball of pacer Adam Milne.
Even after Vijay’s return, Soumya kept the wheel running. But in the next over, Tiger captain Shanto departed for just 6 runs by catching Henry Nicholls at cover off Jack Duffy. Lytton was Duffy’s second victim when he came to the wicket on Shanta’s departure. Lytton, who scored 6 runs, caught Will Young at cover point. Bangladesh lost 3 wickets for 44 runs in the first power play. Soumya was then accompanied by the experienced Mushfiq. Soumya completed the 12th half-century of his ODI career with 58 balls. The opener got two lives in the over to reach his half-century. Rachin Ravindra dropped a catch at mid-off off pacer Josh Clarkson in the third ball of the over. Soumya was out leg before the fifth ball. But he survived with the review. In the 35th over, the frozen pair of Soumya-Mushfique broke. Mushfiqur who scored 45 runs was caught behind the wicket by Duffy. After Mushi returned, Soumya continued to walk on the path of century. He got life for the third time in the innings with a personal 92 off the third ball of the 37th over. Young caught Soumya at cover point off O’Rourke.
Soumya finally scored his third century in the 65th match of his ODI career with the first ball of the 40th over after getting life three times. Miraj and Tanjid accompanied Soumya’s big innings after the century. Soumya added 61 runs off 53 balls with Miraj in the sixth wicket and 40 runs off 26 balls with Tanjim in the seventh wicket.
Soumya’s innings ended with the first ball of the last over of the innings. Nicholls was caught by Soumya off O’Rourke. Thanks to his amazing century innings, Bangladesh got a huge collection of 291 runs losing all wickets in 49.5 overs. New Zealand’s Duffy and O’Rourke took three wickets each. Two New Zealand openers, Young and Ravindra, got off to a good start with a target of 292 runs. They added 76 runs off 66 balls in the opening pair. After Rishad’s great catch, pacer Hasan gave Bangladesh the first back-through by hunting down Ravindra who was batting Marmukhi. Ravindra scored 45 runs off 33 balls with 7 fours and 1 six.
Young resisted the Bangladesh bowlers with Henry Nicholls. Young, who scored a century in the first ODI, picked up his eighth half-century off 51 balls. After the half-century, he easily kept the team’s run wheel moving with Nicholls. Pacer Shariful created an opportunity to stop Young in the 27th over. But Hriday caught Ing who was on 77 runs. Hasan of Bangladesh didn’t let Jeevan Pawa Young score his second consecutive century. In the 33rd over, Hasan dismissed Young with a return catch of his own ball. Young scored 89 runs off 94 balls with 8 fours and 2 sixes. Young returned with 128 runs from 131 balls for the second wicket, leaving New Zealand on the way to victory. Hasan showed Bangladesh the way to return to the match by hunting Young for 204 runs. After that, Nicholls eased the way for Kiwis to win by adding 56 runs off 47 balls with Latham. Nicholls scored 95 runs off 99 balls with 8 fours and a six before Shariful’s miker.
Latham and Blundell gave New Zealand a taste of victory with 22 balls to spare with an unbeaten 36 off 34 balls for the fourth wicket. Latham remained unbeaten on 34 and Blundell on 24.
