Image Courtesy - AFP
On Friday, Sri Lanka escaped from their first-ever whitewash against Bangladesh as they defeated the ‘tigers’ by 97 runs in the third and the final encounter of the bilateral series.
Sri Lanka, who won the toss, elected to bat first here at the Shere Bangla National Stadium, Dhaka.
Captain Kusal Perera, who opened for the Sri Lankan side put up a stellar performance as he scored a brilliant 120 off 122 balls with the help of 11 fours and a lone sixer. Dhananjaya De Silva, who came into bat at number 5 for the Lankan side played a crucial role as he scored 55 facing 70 balls.
On the other hand, Bangladesh’s Taskin Ahmed bowled a beautiful spell where he picked 4 wickets bowling 9 overs conceding 46 runs and helped Bangladesh’s side to restrict the visitors for a score of 286 losing 6 wickets from 50 overs.
The hosts who came into bat to chase down the target failed to put up a good opening partnership as Dushmantha Chameera struck in his very first over he bowled as he picked Mohammad Naim who had just opened his account by then.
Chameera, not only struck once but struck thrice during the powerplay as he dismantled the Bangladesh’s batting lineup. Chameera showed the way to the pavilion to Bangladesh’s key players like Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan.
Though Mamudullah and Mosadeek Hossain scored 51 and 53 respectively, it didn’t change the ‘Tiger’s fate today as the Lanka bowlers made sure to restrict the hosts for 189 all-out from 42.3 overs. With this, Sri Lanka escaped from a whitewash as they defeated the Bangladeshis in the final encounter of the series.
Sri Lanka, with this victory, claimed their first World Cup Super League points.