Colombo: Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh in the Super 4 stage of the Asia Cup tournament by 21 runs, a win that the Tigers struggled hard to get. Bangladesh could score 236 runs in 48.1 overs. Sri Lanka's Sadeera Samarawickrama's heroic 93 runs guided the team to 257/9 in 50 overs. Bangladesh's Towhid Hridoy hit 82 out of 97 balls but to no avail.
Lankan players Sadeera Samarawickrama, Kusal Mendis, Matheesha Pathirana, and Maheesh Theekshana excelled in the game. Bangladesh started very well to chase the target set by Lankans. They had a good 55-run opening partnership but in quick succession, they lost the next three wickets within 28 runs. This left little room for the next batsmen to make up for the loss.
However, some sort of rescue partnership came between Towhid Hridoy and Mushfiqur Rahim, who added 72 runs on the board. Hridoy went on to play the anchor inning for Bangladesh as he went on to score his third half-century in ODI cricket.
Earlier, Sri Lanka made 257 runs for nine against Bangladesh in their Asia Cup Super 4 match. After being asked to bat first, Samarawickrama made 93 off 72 balls, Mendis 50 and Pathum Nissanka 40, yet the Sri Lankans might view this effort as a lost opportunity to be in a far stronger position.
Bangladesh were served well by Hasan Mahmud (3 for 57), while Shoriful Islam and Taskin Ahmed shared four wickets among them equally. If a few edges did not elude the Bangladesh fielders or they remained more alert, Sri Lanka could have been in deeper peril. After the early departure of Dimuth Karunaratne, who edged pacer Mahmud to Mushfiqur Rahim behind the stumps, Lanka found some sanity through Nissanka and Mendis.
The second wicket pair added 74 runs, though the partnership was not always smooth. Mendis, in particular, looked scratchy in the middle and there were edges and false shots galore in his 73-ball 50. Nissanka was relatively more fluent, but a clever slower delivery from Islam ended his stay, and even the DRS could not save the batter from the leg-before verdict.
The home side lost three more wickets in the span of next 14 overs as they struggled for a lively middle-over phase. Samarawickrama, who is one of Sri Lanka's better ODI batters this year, was an exception on the day. The elegant right-hander negated a rather slow pitch and Bangladesh bowlers to script a very fluent innings.
The right-hander was sure in his feet movement and judged the length very early, and a pulled six off Mahmud stood as a testimony to that. Samarawickrama, who eventually got out in the last over of the innings, could have carried Sri Lanka to a better place with a bit more support but that was not forthcoming. (with agency inputs)
