Sri Lanka’s inexperienced batting line-up and their fragile bowling attack were fully exposed as Bangladesh created history with a maiden One Day International (ODI) series triumph in Dhaka.
The Lankans at least avoided the humiliation of a series whitewash by pulling off the third and final ODI by a convincing margin after having conceded the first two ODIs to their opponents rather meekly.
The recent 1-2 series loss to Bangladesh have also put the Sri Lankans under huge amounts of pressure as they are currently placed last in the ICC Cricket World Cup Super League Points Table.
Sri Lanka were set to collect full points from this series despite fielding a new look outfit but instead they managed only 10 points, which could probably make a big difference in deciding the top eight teams for the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup in India.
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Mushfiqur Rahim was selected Player-of-the-Series.
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As a result, Sri Lanka will be under tremendous pressure when they take on the reigning champions England in an away series next month, which will be soon followed by a home series against India in July.
In contrast, Bangladesh have moved to the top of the ICC Cricket World Cup Super League Points Table with a total of 50 points and they are determined to make a direct entry to the world showpiece event.
As the hosts, they were well prepared for the series and played some smart all-round cricket while the Lankans have only themselves to be blamed for a lethargic performance.
Sri Lanka of course, got their act together somewhat during the latter part of the series but by that time the damage was already done as Bangladesh had taken an unbeatable 2-0 lead.
Their 97-run victory in the third and final ODI was more or less only a morale booster as they returned back with another away series defeat having earlier lost to the West Indies 0-3 in the Caribbean.
The clear difference between the two teams was Bangladesh’s ability to build up significant partnerships in the top and middle order whenever they had lost a couple of quick wickets.
In contrast, Sri Lanka were severely far behind in this area and it was during the third and final ODI that they managed to improve in this department and build up match winning partnerships.
But it was Bangladesh who led the way as they gave a fine batting display in the first two ODIs and showed the art of building an innings even at the most difficult situation of the game.
In fact, the home side were struggling at 99 for four in the first ODI but they managed to put their heads down and recover to finish with a highly competitive total of 257 for six from 50 overs in the end.
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Kusal Perera was Sri Lanka’s only centurion in the series.
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This was mainly due to some outstanding batting from the consistent run-getter Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah Riyad who combined in a fifth-wicket partnership of 109 runs.
Mushfiqur, of course, made the difference between the two teams with his solid middle order batting performance which brought him a total of 237 runs inclusive of one hundred and a half-century.
The diminutive wicket-keeper batsman turned out to be the biggest headache for the Sri Lankan bowlers as he always came into the team’s rescue with some valuable runs in the middle order.
His near run-a-ball 125 in the second ODI was a pure masterclass innings as the elegant right-hander carried Bangladesh to a match winning total almost single handed.
However, from the Sri Lankan point of view there was no one who could play the sheet anchor role as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals.
Skipper Kusal Janith Perera eventually brought some hope to the Sri Lankan camp with a magnificent century in the third ODI while putting on two match winning partnerships together with opener Danushka Gunathilaka and Dhananjaya de Silva.
But overall, Sri Lanka’s batting looked pretty ordinary without some of the big names in the line-up with only Dhananjaya de Silva and Wanindu Hasaranga scoring a half century each.
In contrast, Bangladesh produced five half centurions in the three-match series apart from Mushfiqur Rahim’s hundred, which actually proved to be the difference between the two teams.
Middle order batsman Mahmudullah accounted for two fifties while Skipper Tamim Iqbal, Mosaddek Hossain and Mushfiqur compiled one half century each to help Bangladesh pile up the runs.
In the bowling department too Bangladesh had the edge over their rivals with four bowlers having an economy rate of under five runs per over although Dushmantha Chameera had the best bowling figures for the visitors.
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