Asia Cup: Asalanka, Samarawickrama help Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh by 5 wickets

Charith Asalanka and Sadeera Samarawickrama partnership defeated Shakib Al Hasan-led Bangladesh with 66 balls remaining.

Earlier, after winning the toss, Shakib Al Hasan won the toss and elected to bat first. He said, “”We will bat first. Looks to me a dry wicket, hopefully we can put the runs on the board. We know Sri Lanka are a very good team, we have to be at our best in batting, bowling and fielding. We have got three seamers and three spinners in our squad.”

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However, for the very beginning, the Bangladesh batters were seen struggling in front of Sri Lankan bowling attack. Apart from Najmul Hossain Shanto, who scored 89 runs in 122 balls, no other players could manage to score for the squad. Finally by 42.4 overs, the entire team collapsed at 164 runs.

For Sri Lanka, Matheesha Pathirana took 4 wickets, Maheesh Theekshana took 2, while Dhananjaya de Silva, Dunith Wellalage and Dasun Shanaka picked one each.

Chasing a comparitively small target of 165 runs, Sri Lanka too lost early wickets. But Sadeera Samarawickrama (54) and Charith Asalanka (62) set a good partnership, that helped Sri Lanka defeat Bangladesh by 5 wickets.

For Bangladesh, Shakib Al Hasan took two wickets, while Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam and Mahedi Hasan picked one each.

Earlier on 30 August, Pakistan thrashed Nepal by a whopping 238 runs in the Asia Cup 2023 opener, all thanks to the thunderous innings of skipper Babar Azam (151), Iftikhar Ahmed (109) and Shadab Khan who picked 4 wickets. 

Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma-led Indian team is all set to face arch rivals Pakistan on 2 September and it is expected to be a nail biting match as both the teams are facing each other after 2022 T20 World Cup. 

Updated: 31 Aug 2023, 10:20 PM IST