Sri Lanka defeated Bangladesh comfortably by 5 wickets to kickstart the business in Group B in the Asia Cup here in Pallekele. Fifties from Charith Asalanka and Sadeera Samarawickrama helped Sri Lanka weather the storm, and chase down the target in a low-scoring affair. Skipper Dasun Shanaka was quite instrumental in leading the side and restricting Bangladesh to 164 runs. Dasun Shanaka marshaled his troops smartly in the crunch match
Bangladesh chose to bat first after winning the toss on a slow wicket, which seemed to offer considerable help to the spinners. The Sri Lankan spin attack led by Mahesh Theekshana and Dhananjaya de Silva spun the web around the Bangladesh batsman right from the second over, making it difficult for the batters to score, and picking wickets in regular intervals.
Najmul Hossain Shanto was the lone warrior for Bangladesh scoring more than half of the team’s runs (89 0f 122), however, he got almost no support from the other batters. The Bangladesh tail fell without a fight, as the last 5 wickets fell for just 23 runs, and their innings ended with more than 7 overs to spare. Matheesha Pathirana ran through the Bangladesh batting picking up 4 crucial wickets and keeping the batsman in his stranglehold.
In reply, the Sri Lankan innings seemed to be a Carbon Copy of their opponents – both openers falling inside the powerplay, scoring rate under 4 throughout the innings with the batsman being careful against the spinners. Sadeera Samarawickrama and Charith Asalanka stitched together a crucial partnership taking their team closer to the total.
However, unnecessary aggression from Samarawickrama and de Silva cost them their wickets and just when Bangladesh sensed an opening to launch their comeback, skipper Dasun Shanaka and Asalanka took Sri Lanka ashore with plenty of overs to spare.
Charith Asalanka has been outstanding over the last two years. Good signs for Sri Lankan cricket – Dasun Shanaka
In the post-match chat, Sri Lankan captain Dasun Shanaka claimed the victory to be a team effort and especially lauded his bowlers for their execution on this surface,
“The way bowlers executed, credit to them. Especially Theekshana up front, Dhananjaya, and Pathirana who’s bowling so well” said Dasun Shanaka.
“Tricky surface. The way Sadeera batted, today was his day. Asalanka has been outstanding over the last 2 years. Good signs for Sri Lankan cricket,” he added.