Rabbi, Nasum, Shoriful, Zakir even fails in warm-up

Touring Ireland men's cricket team blew away BCB XI on Thursday by 77 runs (D/L) in the lone practice match ahead of the three-match ODI series against Bangladesh.

BCB XI, captained by Yasir Ali Rabbi, was comprised of a bunch of national players alongside few rising stars. Rabbi is a member of Bangladesh ODI squad for the forthcoming ODI series. Nasum Ahmed, Shoriful Islam and Zakir Hasan are  three more names who are considered for the senior national side of Bangladesh for Ireland series.

Besides, Shamim Hossain Patwary and Rahman Rejaur Raja were the parts of Bangladesh squad for just late England series. Soumya Sarkar was the most experienced among the players represented the BCB XI in terms of international exposure.

BCB XI however, won the toss and invited the guests to bat first. Irish got good start from their opening pair combining Stephen Doheny and experienced campaigner Paul Stirling as they remained undivided to post 53 runs on the board from 8.3 overs.

Doheny departed on 30 off 32 while Stirling got out scoring 54 off 50. Skipper Andy Balbirnie was batting on 17 till the first delivery of 23rd over when the rain came. Balbirnie later on, didn't came to bat when the game resumed with a revised limit. The life-line of the game was reset to 40-over a side and visitors posted 255 runs on the board for six wickets.

Curtis Campher was the leading Irish scorer who piled up 75 runs off 49 balls with seven boundaries and four over boundaries. Rishad Hossain and Rahman Rejaur Raja shared two wickets each but they conceded 51 and 50 runs respectively from seven overs each! Nasum and Shoriful remained wicketless as Soumya Sarkar picked the 5th Irish wicket.

Chasing the mammoth 258-run target from 40 overs, Bangladesh were bowled out to manage 181 runs sustaining 32.1 overs. Zakir, who got maiden ODI call for the forthcoming series, scored 18 runs, skipper Rabbi, succeeded Mahmudullah in the Squad could gather three. Soumya, who missed a fifty for two runs, was the leading scorer, while the dropped man for Irish series Shamim Patowari scored 35 off 38. Wicketkeeper batter Akbar Ali's 26 off 20 was the third mentionable Bangladesh score.

Ireland experimented with all their bowling weapons as Balbirnie used nine bowlers, seven of whom got wickets! Andy McBrine was the most successful Irish bowlers, who picked three wickets whereas Mark Adair took two.