Sri Lanka Defeats Bangladesh By 2 Wickets In A Thrilling Match

Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bowl first. Sabbir Rahman and Mehidy Hasan Miraz opened the game for Bangladesh.

Sabbir was opening first time in international cricket, whereas Mehidy had only opened once before, that too coincidently in the Asia Cup four years ago.

Bangladesh has so far tried six different opening players this year. It was another permutation and combination for them that they have experimented with. Only, this was a partly successful experiment.

In the first ball of the match itself, Sabbir scooped the ball for a fine leg four. But soon in the third over of the match, he lost his wicket to Asitha Fernando getting caught by Kusal Mendis.

Soon after Sabbir lost his wicket, Mehidy compensated with two back-to-back sixes. He hit two fours too in the first six overs and took the total to 55-1 by the end of powerplay.

Mehidy went back to pavilion soon after, bowled while trying to slog Wanindu Hasaranga. But he had already done the damage, scoring 38 with a 140+ strike rate in only 26 balls.

Bangladesh got off to a good start before Mehidy lost his wicket in the seventh over and soon after him Mushfiqur Rahim in the next over.

Back-to-back two wickets sparked some motivation in the SriLankans. On the other hand, Shakib kept the run rate going, smashing three fours off Karunaratne in the tenth over.

With those fours Shakib touched the 6000 runs milestone in international cricket. He also has more than 400 wickets to his name.

In the 11th over Shakib lost his wicket to Maheesh Theekshana just after Bangladesh thought they had good momentum.

Mahmudullah and Afif Hossain put on 59 for the fifth wicket, hitting five fours and three sixes between them.

In the end Mosaddek Hossain accelerated the innings by hitting four sixes and took the total to 183-7.

Sri Lanka fights back

Sri Lanka’s openers began slowly, scoring just 13 off the first three overs of the chase, before exploding to life in the fourth and fifth overs.

Sri Lanka was 48-2 in the first six overs. Sri Lanka kept losing quick wicket one after the another. On the other hand, Mendis was smashing unabashedly.

He struck a good partnership with Danushka to provide momentum. By the time he lost his wicket, he had done the damage, although the match was still in a cliffhanger.

In a thrilling last over, Sri Lanka took the game home with 2 fours and made their way into Super 4.