After the bowlers restricted Sri Lanka to 138 for nine, the “Men In Blue” overcame the early hiccups as they reached the target in 19.2 overs.
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Shakib was happy to play second fiddle as Sabbir flayed Sri Lanka’s bowlers to complete his third Twenty20 worldwide fifty off 38 balls with a six off Shehan Jayasuriya over midwicket.
Sri Lanka only had Dinesh Chandimal scoring a 50 while Tillekaratne Dilshan looked scratchy during his 28-ball 27.
In Match 5 of the Asia Cup T20 2016, hosts Bangladesh won by a considerable margin of 23 runs against defending champions Sri Lanka.
Several cricket enthusiasts have been taken by surprise by the nature of the pitches on offer at the Asia Cup in Mirpur, and I must confess I, too, hadn’t expected such surfaces, where there has been a fair amount of grass and reasonable sideways movement. He has managed to score just 20 runs in the last two innings against UAE and Bangladesh. Manzoor made 10 in 18 balls, Shoaib Malik made 4 off 12 balls, Akmal made 3 off 4 balls, Sarfraz Ahmed made 25 off 24 balls with three fours, Afridi made 2, Sami made 4 off 12 balls. Sri Lanka’s woe started early on, when Ashish Nehra and Jasprit Bumrah strangled them early. They will next face Pakistan.
Chamara Kapugedera and Milinda Siriwardana stitched together a useful 43-run stand. The former showed intent to play the anchor’s role while Siriwardana went after the spinners.
UAE’s pursuit of 134 began ominously when Soumya Sarkar dropped a simple chance off Rohan Mustafa’s bat in the first over. Pandya started off with a short ball that Dilshan pulled straight to Ravichandran Ashwin at fine leg. Pandya had taken three worldwide wickets off three balls, spread across two matches.
Fast bowler Mohammad Naveed claimed 2-12, and captain Amjad Javed took 2-34.
A good news for the Indian team is the fact that Shikhar Dhawan has returned to the top of India’s order after recovering from injury.
The players to watch out for today’s game are Lasith Malinga and Nuwan Kulasekara who bowled beautifully in the last game and troubled the batsman a lot and played a great role for Sri Lanka’s win over UAE.
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For Bangladesh, a victory is a must as they have already played two matches winning one and losing against India in the opener.
