Rex Clementine at Pallekele

There were doubts about how Sri Lanka’s depleted bowling attack will go about things in the Asia Cup, but the backup bowlers came up with a splendid performance in their opening encounter yesterday at Pallekele helping Sri Lanka to a seven wicket win over Bangladesh.

Hometown boy Matheesha Pathirana was sensational finishing with four wickets providing early breakthroughs and then coming back for a last spell to destroy the tail as Bangladesh were bowled out for 164 runs with five overs to spare.

Sadeera Samarawickrama then smashed a half-century to help Sri Lanka to a comfortable win with 11 overs to spare. He was joined by Charith Asalanka, who posted an unbeaten 62.

Sri Lanka lost the top three wickets for 43 runs but Sadeera along with Asalanka added 78 runs for the fourth wicket to see Sri Lanka through without any alarms.

It was Sadeera’s fourth half-century in ODIs. He was stumped for 54 but by that stage, the job was nearly done. Asalanka completed his ninth ODI fifty.

Pathirana claimed the big wicket of Shakib-al-Hasan, who was well caught by Kusal Mendis for five. He then had the dangerman Mushfiqur Rahim for 13 in his second spell. The former captain cut one uppishly, but the pace was too much and was caught at third man boundary.

The tail had no clue when Pathirana came for one last spell with both Taskin Ahmed and Mustafizur Rahman falling for ducks.

Shanaka held back Pathirana without going on the attack all out and perhaps had he used him earlier, Bangladesh would have folded early.

Things would have looked even worse for Bangladesh had Sri Lanka held on to their chances.

Matheesha was well backed up by Maheesh Theekshana, who picked up a wicket in his first over and ended with two for 19.

Opposition batters had no clue against Theekshana unable to pick his variations. Even the set Najmul Shanto, who top scored with 89 never looked comfortable against him and was eventually cleaned up triggering a sensational lower order collapse.

Shanto had been dropped on two by skipper Dasun Shanaka off the unlucky Kasun Rajitha, who bowled so well but failed to pick up a wicket. He was also lucky to survive on 64 as the umpire turned down a caught behind appeal off Pathirana. Sri Lanka had exhausted their reviews.

Sri Lanka’s fielding apart from the odd flaw looked sharp and a lot of effort seemed to have gone into this aspect, an area that has been pretty ordinary in the recent past.

Scorecard:

Bangladesh innings

Mohammad Naim c Nissanka b de Silva            16

Tanzid Hasan lbw b Theekshana                           0

Najmul Shanto b Theekshana                               89

Shakib-al-Hasan c Mendis b Pathirana                 5

Towhid Hridoy lbw b Shanaka                              20

Mushfiqur Rahim c Karunaratne b Pathirana     13

Mehidy Miraz run out                                             5

Mahedi Hasan lbw b Wellalage                               6

Taskin Ahmed c Theekshana b Pathirana              0

Shoriful Islam not out                                              2

Mustafizur Rahman lbw b Pathirana                       0

Extras: (lb 3m w 4, nb 1)                                        8

Total: (all out)                                                   164

Overs: 44.5

Fall of wickets: 1-4 (Hasan), 2-25 (Naim), 3-36 (Shakib), 4-95 (Hridoy), 5-127 (Mushfiqur), 6-141 (Miraz), 7-162 (Mahedi), 8-162 (Shanto), 9-164 (Taskin), 10-164 (Rahman).

Bowling: Kasun Rajitha 7-0-29-0 (w 1), Maheesh Theekshana 8-1-19-2, Dhananjaya de Silva 10-0-35-1, Matheesha Pathirana 7.4-0-32-4 (w 3), Wellalage 7-0-30-1 (nb 1), Shanaka 3-1-16-1.

Sri Lanka innings

Pathum Nissanka c Mushfiqur b Shoriful               14

Dimuth Karunaratne b Taskin                                   1

Kusal Mendis b Shakib                                               5

Sadeera Samarawickrama st Mushfiqur b Hasan    54

Charith Asalanka not out                                          62

Dhananjaya de Silva b Shakib                                    2

Dasun Shanaka not out                                              14

Extras: (b 2, lb 4, w 7)                                               13

Total: (for five wickets)                                      165

Overs: 39

Fall of wickets: 1-13 (Karunaratne), 2-15 (Nissanka), 3-43 (Mendis), 5-121 (Samarawickrama).

Did not bat: Dunith Wellalage, Maheesh Theekshana, Kasun Rajitha and Matheesha Pathirana.

Bowling: Taskin Ahmed 7-1-34-1 (w 3), Shoriful Islam 4-0-23-1 (w 2), Shakib-al-Hasan 10-2-29-2 (w 1), Mustafizur Rahman 3-0-12-0 (w 1), Mehidy Miraz 5-0-26-0, Mahedi Hasan 10-0-35-1.