Bangladesh lost to Sri Lanka by six wickets in the first T20I of their two-match series under floodlights at R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Tuesday.
Sri Lanka comfortably reached their winning station scoring 158 for 4 in 18.5 overs with opener Kusal Perera’s knock of 77 runs, after restricting Mashrafe’s men to 155/6 in 20 overs.
Man of the match Kusal faced off 53 balls to fire nine boundaries and one over boundary for his 6th fifty in T20I and was caught by Soumya Sarkar off Taskin Ahmed bowling at 147/4 in 18.1 overs.
Thisara Perera faced the innings last ball and hammered a boundary off Taskin Ahmed to draw the winning line when Seekkuge Prasanna (22 off 12b; 1×4, 2×6) paired him in the unbeaten 5th wicket.
The Lankan top order batsman Kusal and skipper Upul Tharanga ensured a good start contributing 65 in 6.5 overs in the opening pair.
Mashrafe made the first breakthrough departing Upul Tharanga who was caught by Mustafizur Rahman, scoring 24 off 23 balls, including four boundaries.
Dilshan Munaweera came to pair Kusal in the next pair, but Mashrafe caught and bowled Munaweera (8 off 6b; 1×4) to break down the Lanka another stand in 79/2 in 8.4 overs.
Kusal continued with in Asela Gunaratne (17 off 18b; 1×4) to carry the team collection to 120/3 in 15.3 overs, before Gunaratne was runs out to depart from 3rd pair.
Mashrafe bagged two wickets for 32 runs in four overs while Taskin took another one for 33 runs in 2.3 overs for Bangladesh.
Batting first after winning the toss, Bangladesh set a target of 156 runs, spurred by the two partnership innings of 57 runs each in the 6th and 2nd wickets.
Tigers promising young talent Mosaddek Hossain, who top-scored unbeaten 34 off 30 balls with three boundaries, stayed in the 6th pair with experienced Mahmudullah Riyad to play seven overs which carried the team collection to 139/6 in 18.1 overs from 82/5 in 11.1 overs.
Mahmudullah was bowled out by Lasith Malinga scoring 31 off 26 balls, including three boundaries.
Soumya Sarkar and Sabbir Rahman played a bit better in the 2nd wicket of 57 in 4.5 overs, after the departure of opener Tamim Iqbal with duck in the very 2nd ball leaving the team without any collection.
Soumya scored 29 runs while Sabbir was run out to depart from 2nd wicket with 16 runs. Shakib Al Hasan (11 off 15b) was another double figure scorer for the side, was caught by Asela Gunaratne off Seekkuge Prasanna’s bowling at 82/5 in 11.1 overs.
Skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza added unbeaten 9 runs and Mushfiqur Rahim stayed for 8 runs.
Lasith Malinga captured two for 38 runs while Seekkuge Prasanna, Vikum Sanjaya and Asela Gunaratne took one wicket each for 19, 24 and 24 runs respectively. All bowled four overs each.
