Sunday 20 March 2016

#AsiaCup: Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh

In the fifth match of Asia Cup, hosts took on Lankans. Both the teams had one win under their belt. Bath have won the match against UAE. Only difference was that Bangladesh has played two matches while Sri Lanka has played only one. Sri Lanka was the favourite to win this match considering the performance of their comeback men against UAE. Bangladesh was also desperate for the win because a loss here and they were virtually out of the tournament. Malinga was not playing in this match due to injury. So that was the big relief for Bangladesh. The pitch was different at Mirpur. It was a much better wicket to bat on. And for the first time in the tournament a captain won the toss and elected to bat first.

Masrafe won the toss and elected to bat first. The openers Mithun and Sarkar came out to face Mathews. Mathews decided to take a new ball in the absence of Malinga. And he was effective with the new ball. He gave a breakthrough to Sri Lanka on the second ball of the innings. Bangladesh was not even off the mark and Mithun was walking back to the pavilion. Kulasekara shared the new ball with Mathews and he too gave a breakthrough to Sri Lanka in his first over. This time it was Sarkar. He tried to hit over long off for a boundary but he was unsuccessful in doing that. Bangladesh lost its openers at the score of 2 runs. Sabbir hit the first boundary of the innings at the start of fourth over. Actually in that over, he hit three boundaries and a six to Kulasekara. He shifted the momentum in Bangladesh's favour in that over. After gaining that momentum there was a disaster in fifth over. Mushfiqur Rahim pushed one and decided to take a single but there was a hesitation between the two batsmen. As a result, Rahim was run out and Bangladesh lost its third wicket. Bangladesh finished powerplay with a boundary but it belonged to Sri Lanka.


Shakib got its first boundary in the eighth over of the innings. After that both these batsmen steadied the ship. At the end of twelve overs, Bangladeshis were 67-3. Sabbir was in his forties. Mathews decided to continue with Jayasuriya and Sabbir started the over with a six. He brought up his fifty in style. Bangladesh took 11 runs off that over. Chameera was introduced in the fourteenth over and Sabbir welcomed him with a boundary over covers. Bangladesh crossed 100-run mark in sixteenth over. Then Sabbir decided to have a go at everything. He hit a six in that process but on very next delivery he gave a simple catch to deep mid wicket fielder. The score was 108-4 after 16 overs. In eigthteenth over, Shakib was deceived by the pace hit one in the air and Chandimal took the simple catch. Bangladesh lost its fifth wicket at the total of 123. Kulasekara came on to bowl nineteenth over but he was smashed for a four and a six by Mahmudullah. Chameera bowled last over. He took the wicket of Hasan on the second delivery of the over and Bangladesh scored 147 runs off their 20 overs.


Sri Lanka's new opening pair of Chandimal and Dilshan came out to chase that total. Taskin Ahmed had a new ball in his hands. Ahmed produced an edge on the second ball of the innings but the catch was dropped at first slip. Sri Lanka opened its account with a boundary on the last ball of the first over. In second over, Dilshan gave a catch to first slip and it was dropped again. It was a difficult catch. Mahmudullah was not able to hold it. Both the openers were given a life early in the innings. Spin was introduced in the fourth over of the innings. Shakib was given the ball and straight away he produced a wicket of Dilshan. Dilshan skied one, and Sarkar took a stunner running back to dismiss Dilshan. Sri Lanka was 20-1. After Dilshan's wicket, Jayasuriya joined Chandimal in the middle. Jayasuriya straight away was into the act. He hit a six over the bowler's head in the fifth over. Sri Lanka scored 44 runs in their power play. After power play, both the batsmen played sensible cricket. They dispatched loose deliveries for a boundary and took ones and twos on good deliveries. They were ticking the scoreboard at the rate of 6 - 6.5 R.P.O. till 10 overs.


After that they decided to go big. Jayasuriya started the eleventh over with a six and Chandimal tried to finish the over in the similar fashion but found Ahmed in the deep. Sri Lanka lost its second wicket at 76. After that, Jayasuriya came down the track in twelfth over. Shakib saw that and bowled a wide delivery and Jayasuriya was stumped. Perera came out bat at no. 5. In thirteenth over, he gave two chances to Bangladesh but Bangladesh missed both of them. Sri Lanka was living dangerously. In fourteenth over, Bangladesh finally picked up the wicket of Perera. Mustafizur hit one straight onto his pads and he was judged LBW. Sri Lanka was in trouble. At the end of 14 overs, Sri Lanka was 88-4. By the end of fifteenth over, Sri Lanka lost one more wicket. After that wicket, Sri Lanka slowed down a bit and due to that required rate went up to 15 R.P.O. Sri Lankan needed big hits to win the match. Mathews went for the big hit but was caught. Sri Lankans were six down in the eighteenth over.


Shanaka connected one and dispatched it over the mid wicket boundary. It was a good hit. Sri Lanka needed more of that to win the match but Bangladeshi bowlers bowled a very tight line. At the end of nineteenth over Sri Lanka's total reached to 116 run mark. Sri Lanka needed 32 runs of that last over to win the match but Bangladesh conceded only eight. Bangladesh won the match by 23 runs. It was an upset. It was not going Bangladesh's way till the first half of the Sri Lankan innings but they came back very strongly after that. Bangladeshi bowlers bowled a great line throughout the innings. Bangladesh's fielding was not that great but they took some crucial catches by the end of the innings to pull off a famous victory.

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