Bangladesh team stumbled at the beginning of the Asia Cup due to batting failure. In their first match in the group stage, they lost to Sri Lanka by 5 wickets. Batting at the start, the Tigers lost all their wickets and were bowled out for just 164 runs. In reply, the Lankans confirmed the victory with 66 balls and 5 wickets in hand.
Sri Lanka did not get off to a good start chasing runs in a low-scoring match. Lankan opener Dimuth Karunaratne was bowled out by Taskin Ahmed in the third over of the innings. Shariful returned another opener Pathum Nishanka in the next over. Karunaratne returned to zero runs. And Nishanka scored 14 runs. And Kushal Mendis was out for 5 runs.
Meanwhile, Sadera Samarawickrama and Charith Ashalanka continued to bat brilliantly in the fourth wicket pair. At this time, the two made a pair of 78 runs. That’s how the Lankans got the basis of victory. Samarawickrama was dismissed for 54 runs after completing his personal half-century. Dhananjaya de Silva scored 2 runs in the next wicket.
After that, Charith Ashalanka confirmed the victory with team leader Dasun Shanaka. He completed his fifty before leaving the field. Remains unbeaten on 62 runs. And Shanaka left the field with 14 runs.
Earlier, Tiger team leader Shakib Al Hasan won the toss and decided to bat at the beginning of the match in Pallekele. The anointed opener Tanjid Hasan Tamim could not facilitate. He returned in the second over with a personal score. Another opener Mohammad Naeem Sheikh scored 16 runs off 23 balls. Shakib scored only 5 runs.
Nazmul Hossain Shanto and Tawhid Hriday took the lead of the team which lost three wickets for only 36 runs. At this time, the two made a pair of 59 runs. Hridoy was trapped lbw by Dasun Shanaka for a personal 20 runs. 13 runs came from Mushfiqur’s bat. Miraj 5 and Sheikh Mehdi scored 6 runs.
Meanwhile, Nazmul Hossain Shanto, who came down to play the second wicket, scored a personal half-century. This left-handed batsman was moving towards the century. He stopped at a personal 89 run by Mahesh Thiksener. The 122-ball innings is arranged in 7 fours. Besides, Taskin and Mostafiz got out for zero runs. Shariful Islam remains unbeaten by 2 runs.
Mathisa Pathirana took the maximum four wickets for Sri Lanka. Mahesh Thiksena took two and three wickets each.
(31 August/MM)