Mustafizur Rahman and Shakib Al Hasan shared seven wickets as Bangladesh gave their retiring captain Mashrafe Mortaza a perfect send-off with a 45-run win over Sri Lanka in the second Twenty20 international in Colombo on Thursday.
Mustafizur picked up 4-21 while Shakib added 3-24 as the visitors in Mashrafe’s final Twenty20 match dismissed Sri Lanka for 131 runs in 18 overs after scoring 176-9.
The win, which ended Bangladesh’s eight-match losing streak in the format, also helped the side secure a draw in the two-match series after they lost the opening game by six wickets on Tuesday.
Photo: AFP
“I am feeling proud to have played with these boys and the support staff. Big thanks to my cricket board and my family,” Mashrafe said in choked voice.
It spoiled Lasith Malinga’s hat-trick as the veteran fast bowler with a sling action finished with 3-34, stopping Bangladesh’s scoring spree and providing Sri Lanka a chance for their third successive series win.
Chamara Kapugedara offered some resistance with the bat for the hosts, hitting a half-century off 35 balls.
Kapugedara and Thisara Perera, who made 27, put on 58 runs for the sixth wicket, helping Sri Lanka recover from a precarious 40-4, but Bangladesh kept their composure to stop them from causing any significant damage.
Shakib, who took two wickets in his first two overs, returned in his second spell to remove Perera and break the stand before Mashrafe bowled Seekkuge Prasanna (11) to dent Sri Lanka’s hopes in his final game.
Mustafizur dismissed Kapugedara and Malinga in the next over to take Bangladesh close, before rookie pace bowler Mohammad Saifuddin completed the team’s second ever win against Sri Lanka.
Malinga was the star of the show earlier in Bangladesh’s innings when he became only the fifth bowler in the history of Twenty20 internationals to claim a hat-trick.
In the penultimate over of the innings, Malinga bowled Mushfiqur Rahim and Mashrafe, then trapped debutant Mehedi Hasan leg before wicket to stop Bangladesh piling up a massive total.
His feat, the second Sri Lankan to achieve the mark after teammate Thisara Perera, spoiled a good start by Bangladesh, who at one stage looked well set to score 200 runs after a rollicking start.
Imrul Kayes and Soumya Sarkar added 70 runs in a record opening partnership to set the platform for a big total after skipper Mashrafe won the toss and opted to bat first.
“It is disappointing. We did not get a good start and unfortunately lost five wickets in the first six overs,” Sri Lanka captain Upul Tharanga said.
Soumya made 34 off 17 balls before he was caught and bowled by Asela Gunaratne, while Imrul was run out after making 36 off 25 balls.
Shakib and Sabbir Rahman shared another 46 runs for the third wicket, before Vikum Sanjaya bowled the latter for 19 runs.
Nuwan Kulasekara bowled Shakib to end his prolific 31-ball innings of 38, the highest for Bangladesh, before Malinga’s magical final over stunned the visitors.
When Paddy Dwyer arrived in China in 1976, crowds jostled to catch a glimpse of him and his companions — the first Western soccer team to play in the country. China was emerging from the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, and on the brink of market reforms that would take the country from economic stagnation to explosive growth. “All we could see was lines of people running beside our bus, trying to look in the windows, to see their first visual of a white person,” he said. “It was all bicycles,” he said. “There were very few cars to be seen.” Dwyer,
Jannik Sinner continued his quest to become the first man in history to win five Masters 1000 tournaments in a row with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Danish qualifier Elmer Moller at the Madrid Open on Sunday. The world leader extended his winning streak to 19 matches, a run that began early March in Indian Wells, and he has captured 24 consecutive victories at the Masters 1000 level, dating back to the Paris Masters last October. Searching for a maiden title at this level on clay, Sinner advanced to the round of 16 at the Caja Magica with a 77-minute performance against
Some of Clearlake Capital Group’s largest investors are growing increasingly concerned about how much time the company’s co-founders are spending on sports investments as they have struggled to complete the fundraising for the private equity firm’s latest flagship fund. One of Clearlake’s co-founders, Behdad Eghbali, has been spending what some investors described as a disproportionate amount of time on the firm’s investment in Chelsea Football Club in recent months. Now, co-founder Jose E. Feliciano and his wife, Kwanza Jones, are nearing a record US$3.9 billion deal to acquire the San Diego Padres. That personal investment by Feliciano has set off the latest
A new NZ$683 million (US$404 million) stadium that was a symbol of Christchurch’s struggle to rebuild after a deadly earthquake struck the New Zealand city is to host its first match tomorrow in front of a sellout crowd. A magnitude 6.2 earthquake killed 185 people in February 2011 and toppled or damaged buildings, including the city’s old Lancaster Park. The stadium, which hosted international rugby and cricket, and was home to the Canterbury Crusaders, was badly damaged and never reopened. It was bulldozed in 2019 and turned into sports fields, leaving the Crusaders without a permanent home. Government funding for a new stadium was
RSS