Malan heaps praise on indomitable Soumya

Soumya Sarkar's sublime 48 ball-88 not out might come in a losing-cause but the innings earned a plaudit from the cricket fraternity, specially for the energy and passion he showed in his earnest endeavor to gun down an improbable target set by Rajshahi Royals in the Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League (BBPL).

Soumya's career-best knock went in vain as his side Cumilla Warriors lost the match by 15 runs but the effort got a special praise for the captain Dawid Malan.

"He did everything, what a player could do but the target was huge and we couldn't set a good platform," Malan said after the match.

Malan who himself scored a century in Cumilla's last match in Chattogram praised the indomitable nature of Soumya who refused to accept the defeat until the completion of the game.

As Rajshahi compiled a hefty 190-3, Cumilla needed a fluent start but they lost two wickets for 26 runs including the wicket of Malan in fifth over to loss the baton.

Soumya then came into the crease and played his shots at will to make the Rajshahi's plan disarray. But sadly none of his colleagues could match his aggressive batting, which was key reason that he couldn't sail the side home.

"We did know that we have the capable bowlers who at least won't concede 20/25 runs in an over. The equation for Cumilla was such that they need to score at least 20 runs in every over. But Soumya did everything and if he could get one or two overs more, he could make it happen," said Rajshahi opener Afif Hossain.

It was Soumya's first half-century not only in this tournament, but also it was his first 50 plus knock in BPL after four years.

"If the target would have been 160-170, we could have played risk-free cricket but when the target was 191, we were bound to take the risk and thereby lost wickets quickly. So we can't help Soumya. If we can give him support he could win us the match. But I hope he would continue such sort of performance and if he can do it, we'll definitely reach in the play-off phase," Malan said.

Cumilla however had lost five games out of seven and they need to win the remaining match to give them any chance to seal play-off berth.