SL v BAN, 2nd T20I Review: Bangladesh wrap up the series with a sensational win

We witnessed a thrilling T20I series, where over 600 runs were scored and 20 wickets were taken, but one has to say, in the end, it was Bangladesh who had too much firepower and managed to upstage Sri Lanka in second T20 and level the series 1-1.

It was a great series for a cricket lover, though it looks sorted on papers but in reality, it wasn’t. Bangladesh made it very clear that they won’t let this go easily. With one down in the series, and coming back from there, wasn’t an easy task. Quite a few people were terming them as “underdog” when they arrived in Sri Lanka and were expected to be knocked off, but they played with right intent and full fortitude and competed in every single game right from Test series to T20.

After losing the first match, all the players were charged up and played with right intent. It was Bangladeshi skipper, Mashrafe Mortaza who won the toss and opted to bat first. Bangladesh made two changes in their side as they included Imrul Kayes in place of Tamim Iqbal and Mehedi Hasan in place of Taskin Ahmed. On the other hand, Sri Lanka stick to their same squad.

In walked a new opening pair in form of Imrul Kayes and Soumya Sarkar who provided a magnificent start to Bangladesh and manage to put up a partnership of 71 before Soumya Sarkar got out for 34 runs of just 17 deliveries which even included four fours and two sixes. Imrul Kayes couldn’t convert the start and gifted away his wicket in form of a runout.

Some resistance was shown by two quality middle order batsman, Sabbir Rahman and Shakib Al Hasan and took their team total past 100. After being 139 for 4 at the end of 16th over, Bangladesh was expected to go past 200 mark, but it was veteran bowler Lasith Malinga who proved it yet again that age is just number and picked his fourth hat-trick and equalled the record of great Wasim Akram. Bangladesh managed to put up 176 runs on the board at the end of their 20 overs.

For Sri Lanka, It was Kusal Perera and Dilshan Munaweera who started the innings, though Kusal Perera couldn’t stay at the wicket for long and got out to Left-arm orthodox, Shakib Al Hasan for a score of 4. It was the captain, Upul Tharanga who walked out to middle and showed a brief resistance before he threw his wicket away to a part-time bowler, Mahmudullah.

For Bangladesh, It was Mutafizur Rahman and Shakib Al Hasan who were able to take wickets in quick succession and take the game away from the hosting nation as they managed to bowl them out for a score of 131 runs.

It was another cracker jack of a game that went all the way down to the wire but today it was Bangladesh, who held their nerve and by virtue of that, they won the game by 45 runs. Shakib Al Hasan was named Man of the match for his important 38 runs and 3 crucial wickets. On the other hand, Man of the series was awarded to Lasith Malinga for his 5 wickets in two matches.

Watch: Lasith Malinga’s hat-trick

Brief scores:

Bangladesh – 176/9 (20) | Shakib Al Hasan – 38(31), Lasith Malinga – 3/34

Sri Lanka – 131/10 (18) | Chamara Kapugedara – 50(35), Shakib Al Hasan – 3/24

– Written by Vedant Sharma