Bangladesh steal a march over Sri Lanka into final

Bangladesh had the last laugh when they beat host Sri Lanka by two wickets with a ball to spare in a high octane league match to qualify for the Hero Nidahas trophy tri-nation T20I final with India on Sunday.

Yesterday at the R Premadasa Stadium, Bangladesh boosted by the return of their captain and all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan chased down Sri Lanka’s total of 159-7 scoring 160-7 in 19.5 overs.

The man of the moment for Bangladesh was Mahmudullah who had deputised as captain when Shakib was injured. With the game heading for a tight finish as two wickets tumbled in two balls through run outs, Mahmudullah kept his cool to hit a four, a two and in a final flourish a six that sealed the match in Bangladesh’s favour amid some heated words exchanged between the fielders and batsmen over a dispute of what constituted a shoulder high no-ball.

Bangladesh almost forfeited the match to Sri Lanka when with 12 required off the last four balls Shakib from the boundary line signalled for his two batsmen to come off the field angry with the umpires for not signalling a no-ball. But saner counsel prevailed and Khaled Mahmud the Bangladesh team manager asked the batsmen to go back and finish the match which they did in style.

Mahmudullah who finished unbeaten on 43 off 18 balls inclusive of two sixes and three fours deservedly picked up the Man of the Match for his heroic knock.

The earlier part of Bangladesh’s run chase was headed by opener Tamim Iqbal who scored 50 off 42 balls (4 fours, 2 sixes) before Sri Lanka fought back to reduce them from 97-2 to 148-8 largely through their spinners.

That Sri Lanka managed to reach a competitive total of 159-7 was largely due to a record sixth wicket stand of 97 off 61 balls between Kusal Perera and skipper Thisara Perera who each made a fifty apiece after Bangladesh had reduced them to 41-5 in 9 overs.

Invited to bat first Sri Lanka’s top order collapsed and at one time it looked as if they would be bowled out inside the 20 overs. However Kusal who has been in outstanding form in the series and Thisara playing a responsible captain’s innings gave some muscle to the innings. Kusal struck seven fours and one six in his score of 61 off 40 balls and during his knock reached 1000 runs in T20 internationals becoming the fifth Sri Lankan to do so after Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Angelo Mathews.

Thisara hammered 58 off 37 balls inclusive of three sixes and three fours.

Shakib returning to lead Bangladesh in this crucial match won the first round by winning the toss and after electing to bowl first made the initial breakthrough for his team by having Danushka Gunathilaka caught at long on in the third over.

However he almost undid his brilliant start towards the tailend of the match by attempting to take his batsmen off the field in a move which was quite unethical in the spirit of the game.

Sri Lanka were left to ponder for persisting with playing only four specialist batsmen and three all rounders. They paid a heavy price for that lopsided combination for when the top order failed there was no specialist batsmen to bolster the innings.

All-rounders Dasun Shanaka and Jeevan Mendis are not players to bat at numbers five and six but rather at seven and eight but the circumstances demanded they bat in that position because there were not specialists picked to fill that position.

Chandimal’s position had not been filled by a batsman but given to Jeevan Mendis who didn’t quite fill the void being dismissed for scores of 1 and 3.

Sri Lanka made two changes with Isuru Udana and Amila Aponso replacing Suranga Lakmal and Dushmantha Chameera.

 

Share on Google Plus

About Unknown

This is a short description in the author block about the author. You edit it by entering text in the "Biographical Info" field in the user admin panel.