Lions roar in the tiger’s den

• Asalanka and Rajapaksa leads Sri Lanka’s emphatic win

By Champika Fernando in Sharjah

Bhanuka Rajapaksa (left) and his teammate Charith Asalanka bump their fists during the ICC men’s Twenty20 World Cup cricket match between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium in Sharjah on 24 October – AFP

Bhanuka Rajapaksa performed well along with Charith Asalanka’s exceptional performance as Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh by six wickets in a high-scoring thriller in their opening Super 12 match of the ICC Men’s World Cup here at the Sharjah cricket ground yesterday.

Chasing a challenging total on what looked like a placid batting track, Asalanka’s master-class and Rajapaksa’s counter-attack buried the Bangladesh tigers, driving their fans of over 10,000 to sheer dismay. Sri Lanka reached the target in the penultimate ball of the penultimate over when an outside edge off the bat of Asalanka raced away to the boundary off Nasum Ahmed.

After being left off once each, the pair shared 86 runs for the fourth wicket in as many as 50 balls, taking Sri Lanka within sight of victory before Rajapaksa was cleaned up by Ahmed when the birthday boy attempted to cut him, showing little urgency to finish things off early.

Rajapaksa, who was let off on 14 by Das at square leg, reached his 50 off 28 balls, playing some excellent shots that included three sixes and three boundaries.

However, it was Asalanka who stole the show with a swashbuckling batting display from the time he walked in at the fall of Kusal Janith in the first over of the Sri Lankan run chase. The former under-19 skipper ruthlessly took the bowlers to the sword, hitting five hits over the ropes and five boundaries as he remained unbeaten on 80 off just 49 balls as Sri Lanka collected two vital points in the points table.

Dasun Shanaka’s men had a minor scare when Shakib-ul-Hassan cleaned up Pathum Nissanka and Avishka Fernando in the ninth over of the match. Then Wanindu Hasaranga perished trying to clear the mid-wicket boundary off Mohammed Saifuddin but Rajapaksa and Asalanka took Sri Lanka to safety with a counter-attacking innings. 

Asalanka was dropped on 63 by Das at mid-wicket off Mustafizer Rahman in the 15th over. The win will give a bag of confidence to the islanders as their batters finally found the form the team was badly looking for ahead of some of the tougher games in the group. Sri Lanka will meet Australia on Thursday, their second Group 1 game in Dubai.

Earlier, Sri Lanka bowlers had a rare off-day since the start of the World Cup, as pumped up Bangladesh batters plundered their bowling attack effectively to give them a formidable score to defend.

Despite their strength being bowling, Sri Lanka put Bangladesh to bat first, hoping their four-man seam attack could rip through the strong Bangladesh batting line up. What transpired was a different story.

The batters negated Sri Lanka’s bowling combination, effectively scoring 171 runs for the loss of three wickets. The openers – Liton Das (16) and Mohammad Naim – shared 40 runs before Das was picked out at mid-off, off Lahiru Kumara at head height when the batter backed away from leg, trying to drive a full ball over the ring. 

The wicket saw Lahiru let his emotions stupidly get the best of him. He almost made physical contact with Das, forcing umpires to intervene to calm things down. They made 41 during the powerplay for the loss of Das wickets.

Shakib-al-Hasan, Bangladesh's mainstay, was sent back soon when Chamika Karunaratne bowled a perfect delivery clipping the top of leg stump when the batter attempted to flick him over the leg stump. They lost their second wicket for the loss of 56 runs.

This was followed by a brisk 73-run partnership for the third between Naim and Mushfiqur Rahim who made Sri Lankan bowlers toil hard. Naim made 62 off 52 balls before left-arm seamer Binura Fernando claimed the third wicket of the Bangladesh innings when an attempted pull resulted in a top edge to short mid-wicket where the bowler completed an easy catch. 

Naim played sensibly, often rotating the strike, but it was Rahim, the aggressor, who treated the highly-rated Sri Lankan attack with little respect.  The diminutive right-hander was particularly harsh against Sri Lanka’s trump card Wanindu Hasaranga as he made unbeaten 57 off 37 balls with five boundaries and a six. The Bangladeshi pair of Rahim and Mahamudulla Riyad added 21 runs off 9 balls before their innings came to an end on 171 for 3.