An all-round effort with the bat, ball and in the field helped Bangladesh continue their giant-killing run and defeat Sri Lanka by five wickets in a rain-affected match at Dhaka today to seal their spot in the final of the Asia Cup.
In a must-win match for them, Bangladesh bowled Sri Lanka out for 232 and then chased down the revised target of 212 in 40 overs with five wickets and 17 balls to spare. A lengthy rain delay after Sri Lanka's innings resulted in the truncated match, but Bangladesh held their nerve despite stumbling in the chase to earn a well-deserved win.
Bangladesh had a disastrous start to the run chase when they were slipped to 40 for 3 in 7.1 overs with Nuwan Kulasekara accounting for Nazimudding and captain Mushfiqur Rahim; and Suranga Lakmal had Jahurul Islam caught by Chamara Kapugedera at midwicket.
The in-form duo of Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan got Bangladesh's chase back on course with their 76-run partnership in 12.1 overs for the fourth wicket to put the pressure back on Sri Lanka as the pair kept the scoreboard ticking over by rotating the strike and also hitting boundaries at regular intervals. None of the Sri Lankan bowlers made any impact on Tamim and Shakib as they adopted a low-risk but effective approach in their partnership.
Tamim, who was surprisingly left out of Bangladesh's original squad for the tournament before being reinstated, got to his half-century from only 46 balls; with Shakib continuing his brilliant form with the bat scoring his 50 from 43 deliveries. Tamim, who scored a 57-ball 59 had 28 dots, 19 singles, a couple of twos and nine boundaries in his innings; while Man-of-the-Match Shakib (56 from 46 deliveries) had 19 dots, 14 singles, four twos, two threes and seven boundaries to his name - this is as close as it gets to a
perfect partnership in ODIs.
Off-spinner Sachithra Senanayake dismissed both the set batsmen in quick succession to put the pressure back on Bangladesh with the hosts 135 for 5 in the 24th over. Senanayake dropped Tamim off his own bowling when the Bangladeshi opening batsman was on 51, but made amends soon after when he had the southpaw caught by Lahiru Thirimanne at point; before finally winning the battle against Shakib by trapping him plumb in front.
But, Nasir Hossain (36*) and Mahmudullah, who remained not out on 32 from 33 deliveries shared an unbroken partnership of 77 runs in 83 deliveries to ensure Bangladesh wouldn't be denied their just rewards.
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