Chameera leads SL to consolation win against Bangladesh

Dushmantha Chameera took five wickets conceding 16 runs in nine overs to lead Sri Lanka to a 97-run win in the last match of the three-match ODI series against Bangladesh on Friday at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.

Sri Lanka won the toss in this game and batted first to post a challenging total of 286 runs riding on his sixth ODI ton by the captain Kusal Perera. In reply, Bangladesh tumbled for 189 in 42.3 balls as Chameera scalped five wickets for 16, his best bowling in ODIs.

Bangladesh lost the maiden wicket off the first ball of the second over bowled by Chameera. In the next over, he removed the underperforming Shakib Al Hasan for four. Bangladesh never recovered from this early damage.

In the fourth-wicket stand, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mosaddek Hossain added 56 runs. The stand was broken by the debutant Ramesh Mendis with removing Mushfiqur for 28.

The onus was on Mosaddek and Mahmudullah Riyad to keep the scoreboard afloat, but they failed to do so. Right after recording the second fifty of his ODI career, Mosaddek fell prey to Ramesh for 51. Mahmudullah also brought up a fifty, but that so late to recover.

Eventually, the hosts ended up on 189 for all wicket in 42.3 overs and lost the match by 97 runs. However, with the win in the first two games, Bangladesh lift the title of the series.

Earlier, Perera, the left-handed wicketkeeper-batsman, started playing aggressively from the first over. He smashed Shoriful Islam off three fours inside the first three overs of the game.

While reaching his three-figure innings, Perera got at least three lives when the Bangladeshi fielders failed to grab his catches when he was at 66, 70 and 99.

At the first chance, Perera tried to play a reverse-sweep off Shakib Al Hasan but he only skied the ball. Mustafizur Rahman came in but failed to grab at the short-leg area. Perera skied the ball off Shakib again when he was at 70, but Afif Hossain failed to catch it. And one final time, it was a great cutter from Mustafizur, but Mahmudullah failed to lift the dolly.

Perera reached his hundred off 99 deliveries and finally ended up on 120 off Shoriful by a superb catch by Mahmudullah at mid-on.

Dhananjaya de Silva was the only other Sri Lankan batsman who was tremendous in the middle. He remained unbeaten for 55 off 70 balls.

Sri Lanka's biggest partnership came in the first-wicket stand when Perera and Dhananjaya de Silva scored 82 runs. Taskin Ahmed was the bowler to break the partnership.

Taskin was the most successful bowler for the hosts in this game. In the first two games, he failed to grab any wicket. He was not a part of the playing XI in the second game, but the concussion to Mohammad Saifuddin came as a blessing in disguise for him and he got the chance to play as a concussion substitute.

Taskin ended up taking four wickets conceding 46 runs in nine overs, while Shoriful took a wicket as well. Mustafizur and Mehidy Hasan Miraz, who were the best bowlers for Bangladesh in the first two games, failed to take any wicket in Friday's game.

With two consecutive wins in the first two games of the series, Bangladesh secured 20 points for the World Cup Super League, which helped them to claim the top place for now with 50 points from five wins in nine games of the events.

Bangladesh's next assignment is to tour Zimbabwe for a Test, three ODIs and as many as T20Is in this June-July.