Sri Lanka and Bangladesh played their 7th Bilateral Series, which concluded yesterday. the last time the two south Asians met was in the month of valentines in 2014 in Dhaka and Sri Lanka won the series 3 – 0, but after 3 years the things were diverse. It was a new look Tiger attack under the coaching of Chandika Hathurusinghe that came down to Sri Lanka to hunt down the Lions in their own den. Indeed they were a stronger team that looked like beating up any team. It was the 7th Bilateral series between Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh and it is now shared for the 2nd time and the lankans have won the other 5 times. 41 ODI’s, 34 to Sri Lanka, 5 to Tigers and 2 matches were washed out.
Kusal Mendis was Highest runs scorer of the series with 160 runs in 3 matches, Highest for Bangladesh was Tamin with 131, and the highest Wicket-taker was Taskin, Mortaza and Fizz with 6 wickets each and the highest for the Lankans was Lakmal and Kulasekara with 4.
1st ODI – Bangladesh 324 for 5 (Tamim 127, Shakib 72, Sabbir 54, Lakmal 2-45) beat Sri Lanka 234 (Chandimal 59, Thisara 55, Mustafizur 3-56) by 90 runs
Bangladesh started the series with one motive, which is to win a series against every team in Asia, they have won a series against India and Pakistan and Sri Lanka was the next in line.
Dambulla has a hard pitch, which is dry and with few cracks, and it’s regarded as a low scoring venue. Mush to the surprise of every Tom, Dick, and Harry who reads the game of Cricket and the grounds well, the Sri Lankan skipper won the toss and elected to ball first, expecting the dew to play a part at night. The young yet imposing, 19 year old Mehedi Hassan made his debut for Bangladesh. Sri Lanka came into this match with 5 ODI losses to their name and without the services of that man Niroshan Dickwella, who was out due to a ban. Tigers made 324 for 5 In 50 overs. One of their most experienced players; Tamin Iqbal made the way to his 8th ODI ton, a dazzling 127 off 142 balls with 15 fours and 1 six. Sabbir Raham buoyed with 54 off 56, Shakib with 72 off 71 and a quick fire 24 off 9 balls by Mosaddek Hossain ensured that the Banga boys enumerated their highest ever ODI score against the lankans, beating their previous highest score of 265 by a large margin. Visitors scored 109 in their final 10 overs which helped them to reach the 300 mark. No Sri Lankan bowler could settle down and all went for plenty. Lakmal took 2 for 45 and when all the bowlers went over 5.5 per over. Asela Gunarathne bowled his quota of 10 overs for just 40 runs and picked up a wicket, Thisara Perara who made a comeback conceded 63 in 8 overs. It was indeed a stiff ask for the hosts to chase all because no team has ever chased down a target of 300 plus in an ODI in Sri Lanka and this was also the fourth highest total against Sri lanka in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka had to break so many if they were to chase this down. The openers Guna and Thara came to the middle but Sri Lanka was at an early set back when Danushka was out LBW in the 3rd ball of the innings, mendis followed soon for just 4 off 17 balls and then the Captain Tharanga for 19. Sri Lanka was down and out at 31 for 3 in 11 overs, when the asking rate was 6.5, they were only going at 2.81 runs per over. Sri Lanka was never in the mood of chasing this down and they lost wickets at regular intervals. Aslea followed by Chandimal and then by Milinda and by Pathirana. All four got starts of 24, 59, 22 and 31 respectively but couldn’t capitalize and make a match winning knock. Sri Lanka were 7 for 178 in 38 overs when Panda decided to have some fun of his own, even though he didn’t have enough support from the other end, he made 55 off 35 balls with 4 fours and 2 sixes and fell as the 10 the Wicket when the scoreboard read 234 in 45.1 overs. Thisara scored his first half ton after two and half years. Lions were outplayed by the less strong Tigers this time and they registered a victory of 90 runs. The Fizz took 3 wickets for 56 runs and two each by Captain Mortaza and debutant Mehedi. Tamin was also the Man of the Match.
This was only the 5th win for Bangladeshi boys over Sri Lanka in 39 encounters. This was the first win for them batting first and the other four were while chasing, this was also only their 2nd win in Sri Lankan Soil. Bangladesh’s score of 324 was also the highest score for them away from home. Tamin was the man of the Match for his impressive century and Sri Lanka was trailing behind at 1 – 0 with two games to play.
2nd ODI – Sri Lanka 311 (Mendis 102, Tharanga 65, Gunaratne 39, Taskin 4-47) v Bangladesh Match abandoned
Sri Lanka made 311, Kusal Mendis made his maiden Century, Taskin took a hat trick in the last over, rain intervened and the match was called off without Bangladesh facing a single ball.
Captain Tharanga was playing his 200th ODI match and this time around he didn’t have any hesitation in batting first since the dew didn’t play any part in the first encounter. Bangladesh was unchanged and the two Nuwan’s made their way to the Sri Lankan team and Dilruwan too, Pathirana, kumara and Sandakan was left out. Once again the openers couldn’t trouble the scorers, Gunathilaka fell for 9 off 11 balls. Captain UT and young mendis added 111 for the 2nd Wicket and the Captain was back in the hut for well-made 65 off 76 balls. Chandimal, Gunarathne and Milinda gave a good support to Mendis with 24, 39 and 30 respectively. The talented young right hander made his way to his first century in his 24th match, he was slow and steady to start off and ended on 102 of 107 balls and was out in a very unlucky way. Mendis did cut, drive and swept his way to a brilliant knock which included 9 fours and a six. The all-rounders; Thisara, Dilruwan and Nuwan couldn’t add much to the final score.
Sri Lanka couldn’t bat their quota of 50 overs, thanks to a last over Hat Trick by Taskin Ahmed. He took Asela, Lakmal and Pradeep in the last over and become the 5th Bangladeshi bowler after Shahadat Hossain, Abdur Razzak, Rubel Hossain and Taijul Islam to take a hat trick.
Persistent rain affected the match to be called off. Not පින්න bro, not පින්න something bigger than that came, yeah, the වැස්ස and it did wash away the hopes of Sri Lanka, a challenging score of 311, chasing in Dambulla, no team ever chasing 300 plus in Sri Lanka made them the red hot Favourites to win the match, but it was abandoned. The features of the Match was Tharanga’s double hit and Taskin’s great reflexes to dismiss Mendis. Sri Lanka wobbled at the end and they lost 6 wickets in the last 5 overs. Tharanga’s disastrous run out of a no ball and Kusal’s wretched dismissal did apply brakes on the scoring.
One might say that the Lankans were the favourites to win the game after posting 311, but it was “4 years back, on 28th March, 2013, when the situation was quite similar. SL lost to Bangladesh via D/L method after scoring 300+.” So you never know the rain might have been a blessing in disguise for the Lions.
3rd ODI – Sri Lanka 280 for 9 (Kusal 54, Thisara 52, Mortaza 3-65) beat Bangladesh 210 in 44.3 overs (Shakib 54, Mehedi 51, Kulasekara 4 for 37, Prasanna 2 for 33) by 70 runs
Sri Lanka had to fight back well, and indeed they did. They came into the match with two possible results; either Bangladesh to win the match and clinch the series 2 – 0, rain to wash out the match and Banga boys to win the series 1 – 0, or the Lankans to Win and square the series at 1- 1. Previously only 1 bilateral series was drawn out of 6 and 5 were won by Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka came Strong and won the Match by 70 runs to square the series 1 – 1.
Bangladesh won the toss, decided to field firs and this time the Lankan openers were brisk in their attack and they added 76 in 65 balls. Gunathilaka was out for 34 off 38 and the soon was followed by the skipper for 35 off 35. Mendis was once again the stand out, he was slow to start and then he accelerated, he fell for 54 off 76 balls. Chandimal and Asela made 21 and 34. Chandimal was run out in a bizarre fashion and lot of people had their say about the dismissal. He ran, in fact jogged and walked in the last part, he grounded his bat but at the time the bails were completely dislodged his bat was up in the air and according to the rules he was out. The rules are set to change in October as ‘a batsmen who has grounded his bat behind the crease before the bails are broken, cannot be given out even if the bat is later raised, so according to the current rules this was out since he landed the bat and the it was up at the time when the bails were dislodged.
Big butt Panda came to the middle and did whack few lusty blows to score 52 off 40 balls’ his 2nd in the series. This helped the lankans to score 280 for 9 wickets in 50 overs. Captain Mortaza took 3 wickets for 65 runs.
The spirited banga boys came down to chase down 281 to win a series for the first time but they lost three quick wickets in no time. They were 3 for 11 in 3.3 overs, centurion Tamin, Sabbir and Rahim back in the dressing room for 4, 0 and 0. The number one all-rounder in the World; shakib added 77 for the 4th wicket with opener Sarkar but they lost wickets at regular intervals. Dilruwan went for 20 in his first over and then he bowled economically in the next 9 overs just for 27 runs. Shakib was the highest runs scorer with 54 and Mehedi Hassan batting for the first time brought up his Maiden half, he fell for 51 off 71. Kule was impressive and he took 4 for 37, while Dilruwan, Prasanna and Lakmal bagged 2 wickets each. Bangladesh could only manage 210 in 44.3 overs and they handed a victory of 70 runs to the Lankans.
Thisara was the Man of the Match for his 52 and Kusal Mendis was the Man of the Series for his 165 runs.
