Soumya Sarkar strikes ton as BCB XI demolish Zimbabwe

Soumya Sarkar, the left-handed top-order batsman of Bangladesh, hit a ton in his first 50-over encounter after being discarded from the Tigers' ODI set up following the Asia Cup. He struck 102 off 109 balls in a warm-up match against Zimbabwe as BCB XI outplayed Zimbabwe by eight wickets on Friday.

Soumya lost his place for underperforming during the last South Africa tour of Bangladesh in 2017. But, he got a sudden call-up from selectors in the middle of the Asia Cup due to the poor performances of other top-order batsmen. Soumya failed to grab the chance, and thus was dropped once again for the forthcoming series against Zimbabwe.

However, Soumya has proved that he would have been an excellent choice for this series, hitting the ton in style. Before participating in this game, he struck two half-centuries in the 3rd round of ongoing National Cricket League for his regional team Khulna Division. He brought his golden form from that tournament into this match as well.

Zimbabwe batted first in the encounter after winning the toss. They lost half of their wickets, having scored just 47 runs. However, Hamilton Masakadza and Elton Chigumbura added 124 runs for the sixth wicket, and this effort helped them get to a modest total of 178 runs. Ebadot Hossain, the right-handed pacer of BCB XI, took five scalps even as Mohammad Saifuddin took three.

Bangladesh lost only two wickets in pursuit of the target. Soumya remained unbeaten, scoring 102 in total. After winning the match, Soumya spoke to the media and expressed his joy. "I wanted to bat as much as possible. There was no specific plan as such. The target was not that big, so I played my natural game," Soumya said.

"I was unsure about this match. I was playing in the National League and suddenly got a call-up to play this game. So, it was tough physically. I wanted to play this match because there was no other way. I wanted to stay true to my own game."