Kusal Perera, Chameera script Sri Lanka victory

Sri Lanka captain Kusal Perera reacts after scoring a century in the third and final ODI against Bangladesh — AFP​

Sri Lanka skipper Kusal Perera and fast bowler Dushmantha Chameera scripted a much-needed win for their side when they beat Bangladesh by 97 runs in the third and final ODI played at the Shere Bangla National Stadium yesterday.

Although it was a dead rubber with Bangladesh having made certain of winning the three-match series with victories in the first two ODIs, nevertheless for Sri Lanka it was first points on the World Cup Super League table for them after going through five matches without a win.

The win was set up by the captain Kusal Perera who scored his sixth ODI century and Dhananjaya de Silva who made an unbeaten 55 as Sri Lanka winning the toss and batting first posted a challenging total of 286-6.

Then Dushmantha Chameera got into the act picking up the first three Bangladesh wickets to have them reeling at 28-3 and later came back in the 39th over to take two more wickets to end with career-best figures of 5 for 16 off 9 overs, as Bangladesh were dismissed for 189. Chameera was made Man of the Match.

Mosaddek Hossain and Mahmudullah made half-centuries apiece for Bangladesh, but the rest of the batting crumbled to the pace of Chameera who was not only accurate but was threatening each time he had the ball in his hands.

However, the key Bangladesh wicket was taken by debutant Ramesh Mendis who had Man of the Series Mushfiqur Rahim caught in the deep for 28 following scores of 84 and 125 in the first two ODIs that Bangladesh won.

The left-handed Kusal Perera, who took over from Dimuth Karunaratne as captain in this series, smashed 11 fours and one six in his 122-ball knock. However, he was dropped on 66, 79 and 99 runs before being dismissed by teenage left-arm quick Shoriful Islam. Mahmudullah Riyad took a fine catch at long-on after he dropped the opener one run away from his century.  

Perera and Danushka Gunathilaka put on 82 runs for the first wicket to lay the foundations of their total before fast bowler Taskin Ahmed took three wickets.

Taskin bowled Gunathilaka for 39 and had Pathum Nissanka caught by Mushfiqur Rahim for a duck in the same over.

Perera shared two key partnerships of 69 runs and 65 for the third and fourth wicket respectively with Kusal Mendis (22) and de Silva to rebuild the Sri Lankan innings. Bangladesh did well in the last 10 overs giving away just 69 runs to check the batting surge.

Taskin, one of the two changes for Bangladesh in the match, finished with figures of 4-46.

Sri Lanka handed ODI debuts to Ramesh Mendis, Chamika Karunaratne and Binura Fernando and also brought in wicketkeeper-batsman Niroshan Dickwella, who was run out for seven.

Sri Lanka spinner Ramesh Mendis (right) is congratulated by Kusal Mendis after he had dismissed Bangladesh’s Mushfiqur Rahim for 28 — AFP

Sri Lanka fast bowler Dushmantha Chameera celebrates another Bangladesh wicket on his way to a five-wicket haul — AFP