Sri Lanka demolish Bangladesh

Sri Lanka, reeling from a surprise loss yesterday to Pakistan needed to win this game while Bangladesh wanted to come back from their loss to Australia. After winnings the toss, Bangladesh put Sri Lanka in and the strategy paid off immediately as the dangerous Sanath Jayasurya was dismissed in the first over for a first ball duck.

Kumar Sangakkara and Upul Tharanga put on a small partnership, but Mushfiqur Rahim caught the ball between his thighs and Sri Lanka were struggling at 39/2 after six. Mohammad Mahmudullah bowled spin beautifully when he came on, and bowled Sangakkara when he tried to charge down the pitch. At the halfway point, Sri Lanka had lost three wickets and only had 61 runs on the board. Chamara Silva came on and tried to accelerate the scoring, but after a run-a-ball 12, he was out LBW to Shakib Al Hasan.

Abdul Razzak continued the impressive bowling performance by bowling Jayawardane when he charged down the track in a very similar fashion to Sangakkara. Jeehan Mubarak and Tillakaratne Dilshan added 51 runs in five overs to lead Sri Lanka to a respectable 147, but it was still their lowest total of the tournament and one which Bangladesh would be happy with.

Sri Lanka, even without Muralitharan, has a varied bowling attack, and they would need to bowl very well to restrict
Bangladesh and win the match. They got off to a good start as Nazimuddin was out plumb LBW in the first over from an inswinging delivery from Vaas. Fernando joined in by taking the wicket of Tamim Iqbal (caught by Malinga) and Aftab Ahmed (bowled) in the fourth over (and it was a maiden to boot), and Bangladesh were suddenly under pressure at 21/3.

Two overs later, Vaas claimed his second wicket as Mohammad Ashraful top edged one right into the hands of Dilshan and Bangladesh were on the verge of a collapse at 31/4. Things did not get better for them as wickets kept falling through some good disciplined bowling and poor stroke play. Shakib Al Hasan was run out in the 9th over, while Shakib Al Hasan was bowled an over later by Maharoof.

Any hope that Bangladesh had died in the 13th over as Malinga bowled Mortaza with a beautiful yorker and Mushfiqur Rahim was run out two balls later. Bangladesh still needed 80 runs from 42 balls and only had two wickets remaining. They did not
last long as Jayasurya picked two wickets in the 16th over and Bangladesh were all out for 82.

Sri Lanka 147-5 (20.0 overs)
Mahela Jayawardene 30, Upul Tharanga 23
Mahmudullah 1-19, Abdur Razzak 1-20, Shakib Al Hasan 1-22

Bangladesh 83 all out (15.5 overs)
Shakib Al Hasan 18, Aftab Ahmed 18
Chaminda Vaas 2-14, Dilhara Fernando 2-21, Sanath Jayasuriya 2-4

Sri Lanka win by 64 runs
Cricket Web Player of the Match: Dilhara Fernando