Ish Sodhi undoubtedly, the Bangladesh-New Zealand second ODI is the most talked about name. He scored 35 valuable runs with the bat. The big highlight of the New Zealand innings was Hasan Mahmood's Mankaded and Liton Das's exemplification of the 'Spirit of Cricket' bringing him back to the crease.
Sodhi didn't stop there. He brought himself to the center of discussion with the ball. The career-best bowler crushed Bangladesh's batting lineup almost single-handedly. Bangladesh lost by 86 runs in the second ODI of the three-match series against New Zealand at the home of cricket in Mirpur. As the first match was abandoned, the third and final ODI next Tuesday (September 26) is now a battle for Bangladesh to save the series.
Kiwi captain Lockie Ferguson won the toss and elected to bat on Saturday (September 23). New Zealand was in some danger after finding 3 wickets in 36 runs. However, Henry Nicholls (49) and Tom Blundell (68) handled the initial shock by batting responsibly for the fourth wicket. However, the tourists were not completely safe. When Cole McConchie, the last recognized batsman in the XI, returned for 187 runs, New Zealand had not capitalized on the fight.
However, at the end, due to the tenacity of the tail ender batters, New Zealand got a fighting capital of 254 runs. Ish Sodhi led the tail-enders' defense with the bat. He played an important innings of 35 runs.
But Sodhi's innings could have ended in 17 individual runs, if Bangladesh captain Liton Das had not become the embodiment of 'Spirit of Cricket'!
His main job of spreading light with the bat is bowling or why stay behind! Ten years later, Sodhi bowled a career-best ODI against the country that started his journey in international cricket. After bowling 10 overs, he took 6 wickets for 39 runs.
On the day of Sodhi's bowling excellence, Bangladesh's batting has once again lost its bones. Apart from the two seniors Tamim Iqbal (44) and Mahmudullah (49) who returned to the team after a long time, only Nasum Ahmed (21) of the tail row has reached the quota of 20. Soumya Sarkar returned to the team after two and a half years before opening the run book.
Bangladesh were all out for 168 runs in just 41.1 overs due to batting failure. Bangladesh must win the last match to save the series.