Neither Imrul Kayes nor Soumya Sarkar are strangers to last-minute plans -- both were flown to the UAE midway through last month's Asia Cup, with the former hitting a fifty less than 20 hours after landing. Soumya was called away from the National Cricket League to play yesterday's third ODI against Zimbabwe, and responded with his second international ton while Imrul scored his second of the series. It was therefore no surprise that the left-handed duo -- who combined for Bangladesh's highest second-wicket partnership of 220 -- were all smiles when they showed up for the post-match press conference. The following are excerpts from the good-humoured press meet:

IMRUL KAYES

Regrets on missing out on a hundred in the second game

I could have been dismissed for a duck but I scored in all three games. But yes, I was disappointed as it could have been three hundreds on the trot, which has never been done by a Bangladeshi. I was frustrated after I went to my room and decided that I won't make the same mistake again in the nineties.

Batting with Soumya

I feel good when I bat with Soumya -- I am more pressure-free because he plays strokes. Even if I am not able to score freely, he covers for me -- which is the same with Tamim [Iqbal]. The potential he [Soumya] has, on his day he can be a one-man-show.

Process of scoring consistently

Please let me play (laughs). I don't know that much as I am not a big player yet. I have played well in three games and will try to do so in the coming days.

SOUMYA SARKER

Batting looking effortless after a long time

When you play well you will hear such things -- others can say how fluent I was. I try to play my game whenever I get the opportunity. It's because of my bad patch that I was unable to sit in front of you and you did not get the opportunity to question me. It's because of playing well that I am here. Ups and downs will be there, but I will try to continue playing well.

Regret over not playing all the matches

I felt that after scoring the hundred in the warm-up game [against Zimbabwe]. After landing at the airport in Khulna I thought that it would have been good if I had gotten the chance. But when I was called for the last game I wanted to utilise the opportunity.

Mistakes during the bad patch

I think I used to listen to a lot said from the outside. When I used Facebook I saw a lot of negative things and when you see anything negative, it feels bad. As people didn't write positive things and when I saw the headlines, it felt that everything I did was bad. We Bangladeshis mostly read headlines, so I decided not to use Facebook, speak less to people and think only about the positives. I actually practised less then as things do not go well in bad times. I spent more time with my friends.

Keeping bags packed all the time

Nowadays my bags are always packed and even now I have to travel to Barishal, where I have a [NCL] match day after tomorrow (smiles). It's good that I am playing matches. I don't get nervous but initially there is a feeling that the journey is long, but after resting for a day everything goes fine.