Soumya 169 in vain as Nicholls, Young power New Zealand to series win
Written by I Dig SportsNew Zealand 296 for 3 (Nicholls 95, Young 89, Mahmud 2-57) beat Bangladesh 291 (Sarkar 169, O'Rourke 3-47, Duffy 3-51) by seven wickets
Opening the batting on Wednesday, Bangladesh slipped to 80 for 4 in the 17th over, with Jacob Duffy having struck twice for New Zealand. Regular wickets had forced Soumya to slow down after a quick start, during which he had moved to 26 off his first 23 deliveries, including hitting six boundaries.
But Soumya then added 61 with Mehidy Hasan Miraz, in the process getting to his third ODI century off 116 balls at the beginning of the 40th over, though he was dropped by Young when on 92. But from 102 off 119 balls at one stage, Soumya hit 67 from his next 32 deliveries in the death overs. That aggression featured nine fours and two sixes - 13 of his other fours had all come earlier - before Bangladesh lost three wickets to Will O'Rourke in the final over.
Nicholls arrived at No. 3, and combined with Young to add 128 at almost a run a ball. He managed only 3 from his first 13 deliveries, while Young got to his eighth ODI fifty off 51 balls in the 17th over. But the pair maintained a consistent pace throughout their stand, rarely seeming to be in a hurry to hunt the total down, as Nicholls' first boundary came only off his 17th ball.
Young rode his luck twice - first on 76, when Towhid Hridoy couldn't grab a difficult chance at extra cover, and then on 83, when he used DRS to reverse a caught-down-the-leg-side decision - before eventually perishing for 89 in the 33rd over. By then, Nicholls had got to a fifty of his own, which he could not convert into a century when he pulled Shoriful Isam to midwicket in the 41st over.