Despite a record-breaking century of Soumya Sarkar, Bangladesh lost the three-match ODI series to New Zealand by tasting a seven-wicket defeat in the all important second game at Saxton Oval in Nelson today.
Coming to play the second match under huge pressure following his continuous flop show with the national team, Soumya hammered a 151 ball-169 which is now the highest innings by an Asian batter on New Zealand soil eclipsing cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar's 163.
It's a knock that was also a second best individual ton by a Bangladeshi batter behind Liton Das's 176, but the best knock in overseas condition going past Tamim Iqbal's 151 against Zimbabwe.
Despite his landmark knock, Bangladesh posted 291 before being all out on a batting paradise, largely due to yet another top order collapse.
New Zealand raced to the victory effortlessly in 46.2 overs, making 296-3 with Tom Blundell securing the series by hitting a six against leg-spinner Rishad Hossain who made a debut for Bangladesh today.
New Zealand won the rain-hit first game by 44 runs on DLS method. The third and final game is at McLean Park in Napier on December 23.
After being asked to bat first, Bangladesh tasted a familiar batting collapse to be slumped to 80-4 but surprisingly Soumya, who was held responsible for Bangladesh's defeat in the first game, occupied the crease.
Somuya was trolled severely in social media and the head coach Chandika Hathurusingha was blamed vehemently to back Soumya excessively despite not doing anything worthy in the domestic circuit.
Knowing that another bad knock after a duck in the first match could well finish his career, Soumya was watchful initially when his colleagues failed to use the good batting deck.
Anamul Haque Bijoy (2), captain Najmul Hossain Shanto (6) and Liton Das (6) all fell for a single digit figure before Towhid Hridoy continued his bad patch, scoring just 12.
Soumya too survived at least three times but he somehow managed to keep the scoreboard ticking. Mushfiqur Rahim on the other hand played fluently to give Soumya some relief.
But as he raised his third century, and first after 2018, off 116 balls, Soumya seemed to have gained his Midas Touch and rekindled his old aggressive form.
After hitting 13 boundaries for the century, he smacked nine fours and two sixes more to bring up his last 69 runs for just 35 balls.
He and Mushfiqur added 91-run for the fifth wicket stand to save Bangladesh from blushes. After Mushfiqur was removed by Jacob Duffy for team's second-best 45, Soumya single-handedly drove side closer to 300-run mark.
Some more support from the other batters could well help Bangladesh to close in on 350-run mark, which would have been the winning total in this pitch.
But the lower middle order failed to show any resistance. Soumya alone scored 58.07 percent runs of team's overall total, which is also the highest for a Bangladeshi batter.
He was the eighth batter out in the first ball of the last over when he was dismissed by William O'Rourke. He overall smashed 22 fours and two sixes for his 169.
Duffy and O' Rourke claimed three wickets apiece to be the most successful bowler for Bangladesh.
New Zealand rode on Henry Nicholls 99 ball-95 and opener Will Young's 89 to gun down the target with ease. They got a fluent start from new sensation Rachin Ravindra who struck 33 ball-45 and shared a 76-run with Young for the opening stand.
Young, the centurion of the first ODI, missed out his second straight ton after giving return catch to Hasan Mahmud who with 2-57 was the best wicket-taker for Bangladesh in this match.
Pacer Shoriful Islam took 1-49 as he denied Nicholls the century by five runs. Skipper Tom Latham with 34 not out and Tom Blundell (24 not out), helped the side reach the winning mark.
