DHAKA, Jan 7, 2020 (BSS)- Captain of Cumilla Warriors Dawid Malan heaped a shower of praise on Soumya Sarkar for his ever improvement of understanding to judge the game well when it mattered most.
Being reduced to 32-3, Cumilla was in trouble in the chase of Sylhet’s
141-5. Dawid Malan and Soumya Sarkar then shared a 72-run partnership to steady the ship before the former got dismissed.
As Sylhet got a glimmer of hope to be back in the game, Soumya came up
with sterling 30 ball-53 not out to sail the side home with five-wicket win
eventually.
Malan said, the target was tricky but Soumya’s game sense was key in
bailing them out of the danger. “He did fantastically well. To me, he was the
man of the match,” Malan said here today.
“The way he played today, he was the only one with a strike rate of 120-
130+. He came out in a really tough time, when we were in big trouble, our
scoring rate was four per over, he came in and played a very mature innings.
So, I think that is a very good learning curve for him specially because he
is batting out of position. He batted at no.5 today where he usually bats at
the top three or four in his career. So, the way he came out and played
today, if I was a guy watching from the outside or if I was watching it from
a coaching point of view, I think he has improved so much and he is learning
the game, his thinking about the game is brilliant.”
Malan also praised the bowlers to give them a small target in tricky
pitch.
“The way our bowlers bowled today in that wicket, the areas we struggled
with the bowl this tournament within the first six overs and the last four or
five overs. So, the way we bowled today was fantastic. The boys were
recognizing well of what they wanted, to restrict them to 140 was fantastic.
It was probably a 150-160 wicket, so to restrict them in 140 was very good,”
he said.
Ahead of the game, Cumilla made a tough decision of dropping Sabbir Rahman
as the batsman has been going through a bad patch with batting.
Malan said the decision to drop Sabbir was tough for them but he still
backs as the hard-hitter batsman in the side with bang.
“I was just speaking to the coach and Nannu [selector] in the morning,
they felt he was not playing well enough. So, they made the decision to leave
him out. You know it takes a lot to leave out such a good player like
Sabbir,” Malan said.
“I have played with and against him in this tournament, so I think he is
one of the best players in Bangladesh on his day. So, it would be nice if
somehow we can get him back into the team and play.”
“These tournaments either go your way or it doesn’t, it’s really tough. We
as overseas come here and we play four games and get dropped for three games
and then play two or three games, so we are used to it. But for local
players, it is going to be really tough because he is such a good player.
Hopefully, he becomes a better player from it and he can learn from his
mistakes.”
Not that he played badly, he just struggled to get his score going. Which
happens, you know, last year this time I could not score a run. It’s just the
way cricket works.