Scintillating Soumya keeps Cumilla's playoffs hopes alive
Soumya's unbeaten 53 ensured that Cumilla Warriors chased down the target of 142 set by Sylhet Thunder.
Some brilliant spin bowling from Nayeem Hasan showed Sylhet Thunder some hope for a win to end their campaign, but a brilliant Soumya Sarkar knock along with some help from skipper Dawid Malan ensured that Cumilla Warriors picked up their fifth win of the Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) T20 2019-20.
Cumilla now have 10 points and are still in contention for the playoffs as Sylhet have ended their campaign with 11 losses from their 12 games.
Winning the toss, Cumilla skipper Malan decided to bowl first on a slow wicket. Batting first, Sylhet were never out of their blocks and could notch up only 141, with Abdul Majid top-scoring with 45.
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Chasing 142, Cumilla were thunderstruck as they lost three wickets within the eighth over, Nayeem Hasan being their bete noire.
Nayeem took all three wickets as he firstly struck Fardin Hossain Ani LBW before dismissing Upul Tharanga with a dream delivery, clipping the Sri Lankan's off stump and in his last over, Nayeem sent Mahidul Islam Ankon back to reduce Cumilla to 33-3.
But Sylhet's hopes were dealt a big blow as Cumilla skipper Dawid Malan and Soumya Sarkar put up a 71-run stand to bring down the run rate and set Cumilla on their way. Malan picked up his fifty off 44 deliveries before getting out for 58 off Ebadot Hossain as Sylhet saw some hope of ending the campaign on a high.
But Soumya did not budge as he went to pick up both the win and his fifty to ensure that Sylhet ended their campaign with 11 defeats and Cumilla stayed in contention for the playoffs. Soumya picked up his fifty off 30 deliveries on his way to taking his side to their fifth win of the campaign.
Earlier, Sylhet were off to a slow start as they notched up only 32 in the powerplay, losing the wicket of their skipper Fletcher to Al-Amin Hossain. A 37-run stand between Abdul Majid and Johnson Charles brought some stability but no real flurry before Al-Amin struck again to send Charles back.
Mohammad Mithun came in and slowed down the run-rate before he finally went back for 18 off 25 deliveries as he was stumped by Mahidul Islam Ankon off Mujeeb-ur-Rahman in the 17th over.
Sylhet managed to score 47 runs in the last five overs to reach 141/5. Majid top-scored with 45 runs whereas Al-Amin and David Wiese picked up two wickets each.
