Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh by 21 runs on Saturday (9th September) at R.Premadasa Stadium, Colombo. Sadeera Samarawickrama's swashbuckling 93 off 72 gave Sri Lanka a competitive total on a slow deck. Chasing 258, barring Towhid Hridoy other Bangladeshi batters failed miserably and were bundled for 236.

Before that, Bangladesh had a strong start in the chase. Courtesy, Mehedi Miraz's fluent batting. But on the other hand, tortoise like batting from Mohammad Naim kept putting pressure on Miraz and he went reckless and threw his good start away. The opening stand was worth of 55 and Miraz made 28 off 29 balls. Bangladesh lost Naim after a while and his sedate innings really put Bangladesh into some immense pressure. Before getting back to the hutch, Naim scored 21 consuming 46 deliveries with a sole boundary in the entire innings.

Skipper Shakib Al Hasan too failed miserably and fell to Matheesha Pathirana. Litton Das too consumed so many dot balls but was unable to long his innings and went back to the pavilion scoring 15 off 24 balls. However after this disaster start Mushfiqur Rahim and Towhid Hridoy took Bangladesh out of trouble with their fantastic partnership. This duo added 72 runs on the board. But when things were going smoothly for Bangladesh, the Lankan skipper Shanaka brought himself in and removed the experienced Mushfiqur Rahim for 29 from 48 deliveries.

Then Shamim too departed to Maheesh Theekshana. But Towhid Hridoy single handedly was fighting hard and kept Bangladesh on track. He notched up a calculative fifty and started to whack the Lankan bowlers once he got into the pitch. But the last hope of Bangladesh was done when Maheesh Theekshana trapped him for LBW after his glorious 82 off only 97 deliveries. In that over, Theekshana got Taskin Ahmed too and Bangladesh were 8 down. And eventually got skittled out.

Earlier, Bangladesh asked to bat first after winning the toss. They picked up Dimuth Karunaratne for 18 off 17 balls. However Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Mendis came as rescue and saw the new ball off. The duo added 74 runs on the scoreboard before the former one fell to Shoriful Islam for LBW. Kusal Mendis on the other hand brought up his fifty and departed as soon as his half century[50 off 73].

The wicket triggered a horrible middle order collapse as Sri Lanka lost Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya De Silva in quick succession and fell into a deep trouble. Dasun Shanaka and Sadeera Samarawickrama stitched a brilliant 60 run stand and took Sri Lanka out of trouble. Hasan Mahmud however knocked over Shanaka for 24 off 32 but couldn’t get the other one.

Samarawickrama was at his best today. From the inception of his innings he was adamant to hit hard and rotate strikes frequently. He went for scoring a swashbuckling 93 off only 72 deliveries with a jaw dropping strike rate of 129.17. His single handed heroic took Sri Lanka to a very competitive total of 257 after alloted 50 overs.

For Bangladesh, Taskin Ahmed and Hasan Mahmud were pick of the bowlers as they shared three wickets each. While Shoriful had two. Bangladeshi spinners didn’t pick up any wicket but were very economical to restrict Sri Lanka to a par total.