Bangladesh 257 for 4 (Shanto 122*, Mushfiqur 73*, Madushanka 2-44) beat Sri Lanka 255 (Liyanage 67, Mendis 59, Tanzim 3-44, Shoriful 3-51, Taskin 3-60) by six wickets
Mushfiqur gave Shanto good support scoring his 49th half-century, allowing the Bangladesh captain to dominate Sri Lanka. The pair at one stage went through 60 deliveries without hitting a boundary but that didn’t keep them from being ahead of the required rate.
Shanto struck the bulk of his boundaries in front of the wicket, with his best shot, a scorcher through the covers, helping him reach his second ODI century. He also hit the winning runs, lofting Maheesh Theekshana over the cover region.
Mahmudullah’s fall came swiftly though. Shortly after showing signs of cramps, he miscued a hoick towards deep midwicket where Madushanka took a splendid catch with a full-length dive to his left.
At 92 for 4, Sri Lanka might have hoped for another opening, but they failed to make any further inroads with the dew also not helping them. Shanto and Mushfiqur struck six boundaries in the first seven overs of their partnership. Mushfiqur started with a sweep through square leg, before Shanto pounded Madushan down the ground and pulled him rapidly. Shanto soon reached his fifty off 51 balls
Even when Shanto and Mushfiqur did not get the boundaries going, they kept the scoreboard ticking. Mushfiqur struck the boundary that broke the shackles in the 33rd over when he reverse-swept Hasaranga before slog-sweeping him for successive fours.
Shanto brought up the hundred of the partnership with a swipe over midwicket, before Mushfiqur reached his half-century with a whip off the pads, both in the 35th over. It didn’t take Bangladesh long to romp home, getting over the line in 44.4 overs.
In the afternoon, Pathum Nissanka and Avishka Fernando gave Sri Lanka a rousing start, adding 71 runs for the opening wicket in 9.5 overs. The pair smashed ten fours and two sixes between them in Chattogram. Nissanka drove a couple of his fours over mid-off while Fernando threaded the square off-side field superbly.
Tanzim, however, pegged Sri Lanka back. He broke through by removing both Nissanka and Fernando in consecutive overs and adding Sadeera Samarawickrama in the next over. He had Fernando and Samarawickrama caught behind, while Nissanka toe-ended an attempted pull to slip as Sri Lanka slipped from 71 for 1 to 84 for 3.
Mendis rebooted Sri Lanka’s innings with a polished fifty. He found an ally in Liyanage, who struck three fours and two sixes to top score with 67 off 69 balls. Liyanage ran out of partners when Mendis and Hasaranga fell in quick succession.
Bangladesh’s pacers hit back towards the end, particularly Taskin and Shoriful who never let the Sri Lanka batters settle. Tanzim couldn’t add to his initial burst of three wickets as he was injured for a while. Mehidy Hasan Miraz took the other wicket to fall, with a beauty of an offbreak to the left-handed Charith Asalanka.
Mohammad Isam is ESPNcricinfo’s Bangladesh correspondent. @isam84
