ODI World Cup 2023: Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka, 38th ODI - Who Said What?

Bangladesh defeated Sri Lanka by three wickets to win their second match of the ongoing ODI World Cup 2023. Batting first, Pathum Nissanka gave Sri Lanka a good start, but the Lankan Lions lost wickets at a quick rate. Charith Asalanka calmed things down and eventually managed to hit a century to help Sri Lanka post 279 runs on board. Meanwhile, Angelo Matthews’ dismissal was nothing short of drama. He became the first international cricketer to get timed out as Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan appealed against him being late to the crease.

When it came to the chase, Madushanka once again picked up important wickets in the powerplay, but Shakib and Najmul Shanto’s partnership changed the complexion of the game. They scored 82 and 90 runs each, respectively, as Bangladesh went on to win the match by three wickets.

Charith Asalanka’s century

Sri Lanka needed someone to step up in the middle overs, and that’s exactly what Asalanka did. His century helped Sri Lanka post a respectable total, especially when all the others were struggling. Even though his century couldn’t come in handy for the team, this should give him some confidence going forward.

Shakib’s all-round performance

Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan picked up two wickets and scored 82 important runs with the bat. His all-round performance got the job done for the Bangla Tigers, and they now moved to number seven in the ODI World Cup points table. This can help them qualify for the 2025 Champions Trophy.

Najmul Shanto’s consistency

Najmul Shanto has been extremely consistent in the ODI format of the game. Against Sri Lanka, he once again rose to the occasion and delivered well to help Bangladesh win the match rather comfortably.

Losing skipper Kusal Mendis said:

Charith played a brilliant knock. But we were 30-40 runs short. Happy that some good young players coming through, and happy we have shown some promise in this tournament. In the future we'll have a good team. We had injuries to main players, also did some mistakes. Had we played better cricket, we would've had a better chance. It's very disappointing - when Angelo came to the crease. There were 5 second left. Then he found out strap of the helmet came off. It's disappointing umpires couldn't step in and make correct decision.

Winning skipper Shakib Al Hasan said:

When I won toss, didn't have any hesitation to bowl. We've trained here and know there's a lot of dew. It was a very good partnership, and would've loved to finish it off. One of our fielders came to me and said if you appeal now it'll be out. Then I appealed and umpire asked me if I'm serious. It's in the laws. I don't know it's right or wrong. I had to take decision to make sure my team wins. Right or wrong, there will be debates. That helped. I'm 36 and fight doesn't come so easily.

POTM Shakib Al Hasan said:

They are two important players (Mendis and Samarawickrama), lucky to get those two wickets., There wasn't much for the bowlers, we bowled really well upfront. Spinners kept it tight. Both the spinners bowled really well. Bowling wins us more matches, fast bowlers were bowling really well up to the World Cup. We couldn't live up to our expectations but we knew that we can fight back, we had that mentality. We kept on believing and we kept on coming back and today it paid off. The ground dimension helped as well, the shorter boundary, there was a lot of pace on the ball, so I just had to use the pace, luckily it came off and from there on I never looked back. (Best performance came a little late?) I'd agree with that, we could have been consistent, that's one disappointment.