Bangladesh batsman Soumya Sarkar scored his maiden One-Day International (ODI) half-century during their 37th ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 Pool A match against New Zealand at the Seddon Park in Hamilton on Friday. He was however, dismissed almost immediately after bringing up the milestone, attempting to smash Daniel Vettori over long-on, getting caught by Corey Anderson near the boundary rope in the process however.

New Zealand won the toss earlier in the game, and skipper Brendon McCullum elected to bowl. Both teams decided to make changes to their squad. The hosts decided to bring in Mitchell McClenaghan, who has not played a match in the tournament before this game, was brought in place of Adam Milne. In the Bangladesh camp, Mashrafe Mortaza was replaced by Nasir Hossain, with star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan taking up the responsibility of captaincy. Taijul Islam was the other player to be brought into the playing eleven, replacing Arafat Sunny.

With both teams having already qualified for the quarter-finals, it will be an inconsequential match for New Zealand and Bangladesh. While New Zealand have won all of their games played in the tournament so far, including a narrow one-wicket win against co-hosts Australia in Auckland, Bangladesh have shown a tremendous improvement in their quality of cricket by qualifying for the quarter-finals for the first time. They posted a 15-run win against England, knocking the latter out of the competition in the first round itself.