In the second match played between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup, the Sri Lankan team registered a resounding victory. The Bangladesh team may have managed to win the toss, but from the beginning to the end of this match, the Bangladesh team looked far behind Sri Lanka in every field. The Bangladesh team won the toss and decided to bat first, which cost them dearly. . Looking at the batting done by the openers to the last batsmen of the Bangladesh team, it was not felt that they have come to the field after preparing completely for the Asia Cup tournament.
Apart from Nazmul Hussain Shanto, no batsman from Bangladesh team failed to score more than 20 runs. Forget about scoring runs for Bangladesh, the team’s batsmen could not stay on the crease for long. In this match, Nazmul Hussain Shanto scored the highest score of 89 runs on 122 balls for the team. If his runs are taken out, the remaining 10 players of the Bangladeshi team contributed a total of only 75 runs.
Despite the presence of legendary players like Bangladesh team captain Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim, the kind of performance shown by the Bangladesh team broke the hearts of the Bangladeshi fans. Despite having excellent players in the team, the entire Bangladesh team could not play even 50 overs and collapsed for just 164 runs. On the basis of experience, Bangladesh undoubtedly had the upper hand, but when it came to performance, Bangladesh proved to be a dwarf in front of Sri Lanka.
In this match, Sri Lanka’s young fast bowler Mathisha Pathirana took four important wickets of the opposing team while spending a total of 32 runs in 7.4 overs. The wickets of Shakib and Rahim were included in these wickets. This 20 year old young bowler had given an indication by dismissing Shakib in his very first over that today is going to be in the name of Pathirana. Seeing the way Mathisha Pathirana, popularly known as Baby Malinga, bowled today, it seemed as if Lasith Malinga was bowling for the Sri Lankan team.
The start of the Sri Lankan team, which came to play in response to the target of 165 runs, was also not special and the team lost its first three important wickets for just 43 runs. In such a situation, when Sri Lanka faltered in this match, the pair of Sadira Samarawickrama and Charith Asalanka took charge of the match, who made a tremendous partnership of 78 runs for the fourth wicket and brought the Sri Lankan team closer to victory. Meanwhile, when Sri Lanka’s score was 121 runs, Sadira Samarawickrama was out after scoring 54 runs. After this, Dhananjay came to play at number six, who returned to the pavilion after scoring 2 runs. However, Charith Asalanka, playing well with the rest of the players, snatched the match from Bangladesh.
The Sri Lankan team not only won this match but also broke the pride of Bangladesh on the basis of which Bangladesh was trying to dominate Sri Lanka. During this match, Bangladesh players were also seen fighting with Sri Lankan players, so Rahim did not leave the crease even after being dismissed, although Pathirana’s brilliant bowling sent him to the pavilion in the very next over. After this match, a lot of happiness was seen in the Sri Lankan camp, while the Bangladeshi camp looked completely sad.
