Shanto, Hridoy help Bangladesh level series with comfortable win

SYLHET (Agencies): Captain Najmul Hossain Shanto’s half-century helped Bangladesh level the series against Sri Lanka as the hosts completed a comfortable win in the second T20I in Sylhet on Wednesday. The visitors faltered in the middle overs with the bat before Bangladesh’s top four got all the runs. The game was not without controversy though. Soumya Sarkar’s not-out decision during the chase left Sri Lanka fuming, after the third umpire ruled that there was a clear gap between bat and ball, even though Ultra-edge showed a clear spike. When Sri Lanka were put into bat for the second game in a row, Kamindu Mendis and Kusal Mendis took charge of the Sri Lanka innings from the fourth over after Taskin Ahmed removed Avishka Fernando for a duck. The duo took Sri Lanka to 49 for 1 at the end of the powerplay. However, following Kusal’s dismissal in the ninth over, Sri Lanka started losing wickets regularly. Kamindu was run out in the tenth over and Mustafizur Rahman removed Sadeera Samarawickrama in the 13th. Charith Asalanka walked back the following over, after hitting three sixes and a four in his 10-ball stay, bowled by Mahedi Hasan. Sri Lanka’s experienced duo of Angelo Mathews and Dasun Shanaka then combined for a half-century stand. They struck five fours and a six in this period and pushed the total to 165.

Openers Sarkar and Litton Das then got Bangladesh off to a solid start, scoring 63 runs in the powerplay which was laced with a combined total of nine fours. Sarkar survived the controversial third umpire decision at the start of the fourth over, when he was on 14. He then hit a couple of fours in that over, while Litton hammered the first six in the sixth over. Sarkar was however not able to capitalise much on the extra life, mistiming a pull off Matheesha Pathirana to Mathews at midwicket in the seventh over. Pathirana then returned to remove Litton, who was caught at square leg in the ninth over for 36. Shanto and Towhid Hridoy made sure there were no more blemishes. The pair rotated the strike while hitting at least one boundary in every over. They went through the 15th and 16th overs without boundaries, but Shanto struck Shanaka for a four and six in the 17th over to bring the equation down to less than run-a-ball. Hridoy hit a six off the last ball of the 18th over, and with two runs required off the last two overs, Shanto smashed the first ball of the 19th over for a six to complete his half-century and in turn also seal the win for Bangladesh.

Brief scores:

Bangladesh 170 for 2 (Shanto 53 not out, Litton 36, Pathirana 2-28) beat Sri Lanka 165 for 5 (Mendis 37, Mendis 36, Sarkar 1-5) by eight wickets.