SL vs BAN: 3 Reasons For Bangladesh’s Gigantic Defeat Against Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka registered a thumping 99-run win over Bangladesh in Pallekele to win the series 2-1. This is Sri Lanka’s 8th consecutive ODI series win at home. Bangladesh were left to rue what might have been as they were chasing a maiden ODI series win in Sri Lanka. Their confidence was sky high after win in second ODI but they crashed to a crushing loss in Pallekele. There are factors why they lost in Pallekele. We will list out three main reasons for Bangladesh’s gigantic defeat against Sri Lanka.

Bangladesh’s batting crumbles under pressure. 

The first and foremost reason why Bangladesh lost was a poor batting effort under pressure when the target was gettable. The conditions were decent for batting and past records at the venue showed that chasing teams had won on 9 previous occasions. But with series on the line, they wilted under pressure. Yes, chasing has been unsuccessful in this series but Pallekele was a ground where 286 could have been chased. It was a par score not necessarily a winning score.

It was not a total pathetic batting performance but no one from the top order went through with the innings. Tanzid Hasan and Najmul Hossain Shanto went early while Parvez Hossain Emon got a start but could not kick on from his 28.

Towhid Hridoy looked good and scored a half century but he did not convert it into a century. In a chase of 286, one of the top order batters needed to kick on and score a big one. But they failed to do that. Mehidy Hasan Miraz the captain scored 28 while Jaker Ali scored 27. The tail was wiped out as well as Bangladesh lost their last 5 wickets for 33 runs to be bowled out for 186.

This has become a familiar pattern for Bangladesh over the years losing wickets in clusters and failing to perform under pressure be it any format. It seems they are not learning from their past mistakes and keep repeating it. A golden opportunity to win a series in Sri Lanka was lost thanks to a poor batting display.

Lack of planning bowling to Kusal Mendis costs Bangladesh  

Kusal Mendis has had a stellar series against Bangladesh and he capped that of with a superb 124 off 114 balls in the 3rd ODI. He bagged both the Player of the Match and Player of the Series Awards. Bangladesh got an early wicket of Nishan Madushka while they also dismissed dangerous batter Pathum Nissanka for 35 and Kamindu Mendis for 16 to leave the hosts in a spot of bother at 100/3 in 21 overs. But they let Sri Lanka off the hook and allowed Kusal Mendis to put on a match-winning partnership of 124 runs with captain Charith Asalanka for the fourth wicket which took the game away from the Tigers.

The captain Asalanka chipped in with a useful 58 off 68 balls. The duo of Kusal and Asalanka looked in no trouble whatsoever and took Sri Lanka to 224 before Asalanka got out to Taskin Ahmed. They had laid the platform for Sri Lanka to finish with a big total. Kusal also put on a useful 25-run stand off 27 balls with Janith Liyanage. Bangladesh did well to get rid of Kusal in the 46th over off Shamim Hossain and kept the score under 300. But the damage was already done as Sri Lanka still got to 285/7.

This is an area they must work on going forward to be more consistent and ruthless in approach. From 100/3 they could have kept Sri Lanka down to 250 but that was not to be. They need to win these crucial moments well in future because they did not do well in the ODIS against West Indies either losing all three games in the Caribbean.

Lack of Clarity on Mehidy Hasan Miraz’s Role in the Side. 

This was Mehidy Hasan Miraz’s first proper role as captain of the Bangladesh ODI team. He performed decently as a bowler and got a start as a batter, but he needs to do more to lead Bangladesh from the front. Yes, he is a young captain and will learn on the job but needs to have role clarity, especially with the bat in hand.

Mehidy Hasan Miraz did decently with the ball, picking up 2 wickets for 48 runs in 10 overs. But with the bat, his role is puzzling. He batted at Number 5 and scored 28 runs off 25 balls laced with 4 fours and a six. He is classified as Bangladesh’s number one spin bowling all-rounder and he must do better than these returns with the bat.

We have seen Mehidy bat at the top of the order before, and he scored a hundred as well. He has batted down the order at 7 and 8 as well, and as an all-rounder, one should bat at 7 or 8. When one bats at 5, it is a proper batting position, or it can be the role of a finisher.

So, Mehidy has to find out what his ideal role should be with bat in hand and what his primary role as an all-rounder is. If it is bowling, then he has to ideally bat at 7 or 8, leaving the proper batter batting at 5. The batting order of Bangladesh confused people, alongside Mehidy Hasan’s role with the bat in hand. As captain, he needs to sort these issues out and lead Bangladesh forward in ODIS.

What Lies Ahead

After the ODI series, the action now moves to the shortest format of the game the T20Is. There are 3 T20IS starting from Thursday, 10th of July. The first of them is at Pallekele. Bangladesh has a new captain in T20Is as well as Litton Das. No Najmul Hossain Shanto in T20IS while Sri Lanka will be led by Charith Asalanka with Dasun Shanaka making a comeback in the team.

After winning the Test series and ODI series, will Sri Lanka make it 3 formats out of 3 by winning the T20I series as well? Or will Bangladesh hit back and claim the T20I series and go home with something to cheer about? We shall find that out as the shortest format between the two teams starts shortly.

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