2nd T20
Bangladesh 176/9 (20/20 ov)
Sri Lanka 131 (18/20 ov)
Bangladesh won by 45 runs
A thundering start with bat, and an incisive turn with the new ball ball set Bangladesh on track to a series-leveling victory, and provided a happy T20 swansong for Mashrafe Mortaza. It was in the first six overs of each innings that the game was won and lost. Bangladesh's openers were fearless inside their Powerplay, smoking 68 runs for no loss, and looking stylish while they were at it. Sri Lanka, however, slumped to 47 for 5 in their Powerplay, and their pursuit of 177 never looked likely to succeed from there. They fell 45 runs short, and the tour got its third 1-1 split, with the Tests and ODIs having had that same scoreline.
This Bangladesh victory despite a late hat-trick to Lasith Malinga, who now has four in limited-overs cricket, though this is his first in T20 internationals. That hat-trick had actually come in the midst of a Sri Lanka resurgence. Having looked like they would concede 190 or 200 for much of Bangladesh's innings, Sri Lanka claimed four wickets and conceded only 10 runs in their last two overs. As it turned out, they had already suffered enough damage during the first 18 overs, however.
That Bangladesh's openers had forged that rapid stand was all the more remarkable given it was the second-choice opener - Imrul Kayes - who took guard at the top of the order, in place of the injured Tamim Iqbal.
It was Soumya Sarkar, however who truly shone among the pair. There was a timeless serenity to Soumya's hitting. He leant back and smote Lasith Malinga behind point first ball, and was soon lifting Vikum Sanjaya over long off and cracking him over cover, in the fourth over. He also hit Malinga for successive fours in the sixth over, and though he was dismissed soon after the Powerplay had ended, had produced perhaps the highest-impact innings of the match - 34 runs having come from the 17 balls he faced. Kayes, meanwhile, himself motored to 36 before he was run out in the eighth over.
Shakib Al Hasan then ensured the innings did not lose momentum, surviving two early dropped chances in the space of three balls, but continuing to attack despite this. Bangladesh were well-placed to attempt a score of over 180. The late blur of wickets scuppered those ambitions however - though 176 for 9 seemed like a good score nonetheless.
Shakib then opened the bowling and dismissed Kusal Perera - Sri Lanka's hero of the first match - and the opposition did not recover from there. Dilshan Munaweera holed out in Shakib's next over, before Upul Tharanga sent a catch to mid on after making 21. When Mustafizur Rahman's introduction brought the wickets of Asela Gunaratne and Milinda Siriwardana off successive deliveries, Sri Lanka were reeling.
Chamara Kapugedara attempted a recovery, hitting 50 off 35 balls, but once Thisara Perera and Seekkuge Prasanna played their small hands and departed as well, there was too much left for him to do. Kapugedara eventually fell to the best bowler of the evening - Mustafizur - in the 17th over. With his departure Sri Lanka's hopes were extinguished, and Bangladesh completed the final formalities, taking the last two wickets by the end of the 18th over. Mustafizur wound up with 4 for 21 from three overs.
1st T20
Sri Lanka 158/4
Bangladesh 155/6
Sri Lanka won by 6 wickets
Kusal Perera made a roaring return to Sri Lankan colours, cracking 77 off 53 balls to lead the hosts on a successful hunt of Bangladesh's 155 for 6. That Sri Lanka had so few to chase was partly the work of Sri Lanka's bowlers, who made breakthroughs whenever a partnership threatened, though they were helped to that end by off-colour Bangladesh batting.
Mashrafe Mortaza, who as it turned out, was playing his penultimate game in the format, was by a distance the visitors' best bowler. He claimed 2 for 32 from his four overs, and only one other bowler - Taskin Ahmed - mustered a breakthrough. Sri Lanka sauntered to the target with seven balls and six wickets to spare.
This match was Kusal's first international since his unseemly Test outing in Port Elizabeth, for which he was dropped from the Test XI, then subsequently axed from the limited-overs squads altogether. Having returned to national reckoning via good innings for Sri Lanka A, Kusal outlined his value to Sri Lanka in an innings that showcased a little batting nous as well as characteristic brutality. The bludgeoned drives and whipped pick-up shots over midwicket did eventually come, but not before he had laid low for the first four overs; and the big shots were, in any case, well devised as well as nicely executed. Instead of trying to clear fielders as Kusal often does, he strove to hit even his most ambitious shots into gaps.
Having made only 5 off his first eight balls, Kusal smoked four fours and a six off his next seven, to help move Sri Lanka to 57 for none at the end of the Powerplay. Upul Tharanga, who had given the innings its initial impetus, departed in the seventh over, but Kusal stayed long enough to almost see the chase through. He reached his fifty off 31 balls, and when he fell in the penultimate over, Sri Lanka needed only nine runs, which they would proceed to gather over the next four balls. Seekkuge Prasanna was not out with 22 off 12 at the close.
Though their bowlers responded poorly to Kusal's shellacking, Bangladesh may reflect that it was with the bat that they made the more substantial mistakes. They had flown to 57 for 1 after five overs, for example, but then Sabbir Rahman ran a poor line to get himself run out, and Soumya Sarkar holed out in the same Vikum Sanjaya over. Suddenly, at 57 for 3, all that momentum they had developed was surrendered.
Mushfiqur Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan fell playing expansive shots to slow bowlers, who should, in fact, have been less effective on this track, which retained a little grass and had been rolled until hard. Mosaddek Hossain and Mahmudullah put on 57 off 42 together to lift their side from 82 for 5, but could not quite crack enough runs through the back-end of the innings to lift Bangladesh to a winning score.
Lasith Malinga was especially good through this period, giving away seven and eight in his last two overs, in which he took the wicket of Mahmudullah with a searing yorker, having also done the same to Tamim Iqbal with the second ball of the match.
Rain before play had delayed the start by 45 minutes, but no overs were lost.
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