Soumya and Malan fire as Cumilla end Sylhet's misery

Cumilla Warriors captain Dawid Malan and batsman Soumya Sarkar ensured that their chances of reaching the Bangabandhu Bangladesh Premier League play-offs stayed alive by guiding the side to a five-wicket win over Sylhet Thunder at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur today.

Malan hit 58 off 49 balls while Soumya was unbeaten on 53 off 30 balls as Cumilla eclipsed the 142-run target set by Sylhet with five balls to spare. 

It was Cumilla's fifth win in 10 matches, keeping them in fifth spot in the seven-team table, with two matches left to play. The top four teams at the end of the league stage will enter the play-offs.

Meanwhile, a wretched season for Sylhet thunder met a wretched end as their 12th match brought their 11th defeat. 

However, for around 12 overs of Cumilla's chase, it seemed that Sylhet would notch a consolation win in their last match. Fine bowling from pacer Ebadot Hossain and off-spinners Shohag Gazi and Nayeem Hasan -- who took all three wickets to fall at that point -- had tied Cumilla to just 55 for three with eight overs left. 

With 87 runs to win in the last eight overs at a required run rate of 10.87 per over, Cumilla took off. They were helped by the introduction of part-time off-spinner Johnson Charles -- who had not bowled all seasons despite playing 10 of the previous matches -- from the 14th over. Charles's first three overs went for 30 runs and he was surprisingly given the last over of the innings when just four was needed, and Soumya hit a boundary off the first ball. 

By then Soumya had gotten his eye in and was hitting Ebadot -- whose first two overs had produced just three runs -- for a six and four in the penultimate over. 

Specialist left-arm spinner Nazmul Islam, meanwhile, bowled just one over. 

Earlier, Sylhet scored 141 for five with Aopner Abdul Mazid top-scoring with a 40-ball 45 and Jeevan Mendis providing the late boost with an 11-ball 23. Cumilla's Al-Amin Hossain and David Wiese took two wickets apiece.