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By Sa'adi Thawfeeq

Russell Arnold and Tillekeratne Dilshan hit a half-century apiece and shared a century stand to enable Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh by 58 runs in the third and final one-day international and make a clean sweep of the ACL Cables three-match series 3-0 at the R. Premadasa Stadium yesterday.

Sri Lanka won the first match by five wickets and the second by eight wickets. They also won the ACL Cables two-match Test series 2-0 to complete a double against the minnows of international cricket.

Yesterday's defeat was Bangladesh's 50th in 53 one-day internationals and their ninth in as many matches against Sri Lanka.

The toss favoured Bangladesh for the third consecutive time in the series, but on this occasion they opted to field first, giving Sri Lanka the first opportunity to bat the full quota of 50 overs for the first time in the series.

But the home team didn't take full advantage of that chance although they ran up a total sufficient enough to outscore Bangladesh's brittle batting line up.

Only Arnold and Dilshan got runs in Sri Lanka's total of 258-6 off 50 overs, while Aravinda de Silva promoted as opener to give him some batting ahead of the Morocco Cup tournament next week, made an unimpressive 46 off 58 balls with five fours and a six. The rest of the Sri Lanka batsmen got starts but failed to convert them into big scores.

Bangladesh were pushed onto the backfoot in the ninth over by 28-year-old debutant fast bowler Pulasthi Gunaratne who struck twice in successive balls of his fifth over to send back Hannan Sarker and Tushar Imran. Reduced to 48-4, Bangladesh were finally dismissed for 200 in the 48th over. Throughout the series Bangladesh's top order had failed to deliver and that is one of the prime reasons why they have been unable to put up reasonable totals on the board to test the Sri Lankan batting.

Sri Lanka were four down for 115 in the 27th over, and it was man-of-the-match Arnold and Dilshan who put on a rescue act by indulging in a partnership of exactly 100 runs off 106 balls that gave them their final total.

Arnold hit a 64-ball innings of 62 with four fours for his 16th one-day fifty and Dilshan contributed exactly 50 of 63 balls with five fours for only his second fifty in a 16-match career. The two were neck and neck in the running for the match award. Dilshan excelled behind the stumps with two catches, one a brilliant effort to dismiss Al Sahariar, diving in front of first slip.

Arnold was too quick for Khaled Mashud, the Bangladesh captain whom he ran out from silly mid-off for 37 to end a fifth wicket partnership of 65 off 129 balls with Habibul Bashar. He also chipped in with one wicket.

Hasantha Fernando swelled the Sri Lankan total by 40 in the last five overs with a hard hit 23 not out off 21 balls inclusive of a six and a four. Bashar batted 98 balls and hit three fours for his fifth one-day fifty, before Muralitharan had him caught behind by Dilshan attempting a big pull.

The off-spinner wrapped up the Bangladesh innings when he bowled Khaled Mahmud for 39 scored off 37 balls to end with figures of three for 24 off 9.2 overs. Mashud picked up the man-of-the-series award for his consistency. He had scores of 54, 15 and 37 in addition to his tidy glove work behind the wicket and responsibilities as captain of a young Bangladeshi side.

SRI LANKA

M.S. Atapattu c Mahmud b Baishya 20

P.A. de Silva c Kapali b Mahmud 46

K.C. Sangakkara b Islam 22

D.P.M. Jayawardene c Mashud b Mahmud 16

R.P. Arnold c Mashud b Mahmud 62

T.M. Dilshan c Rafique b Ashraful 50

K.H.R.K. Fernando not out 23

U.D.U. Chandana not out 4

EXTRAS (LB-2, NB-6, W-7) 15

TOTAL (6 wkts inns closed, 50 overs, 205 mins)258

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-39 (Atapattu), 2-82 (Sangakkara), 3-114 (De Silva),4-115 (Jayawardene), 5-215 (Dilshan), 6-248 (Arnold).

Did not bat: M.K.C. Gamage, .P.W. Gunaratne, M. Muralitharan.

BOWLING: Islam 10-0-42-1 (3nb, 1w), Baishya 7-0-41-1 (3nb, 1w), Mahmud 10-0-51-3 (1w), Rafique 10-1-32-0 (1w), Kapali 6-0-36-0 (1w), Bashar 2-0-20-0 (1w), Ashraful 5-0-34-1 (1w).

BANGLADESH

A.H. Sarker lbw b Gunaratne 14

M.A. Sahariar c Dilshan b Gamage 20

M. Ashraful c Chandana b Fernando 10

K.H. Bashar c Dilshan b Muralitharan 52

S.T. Imran b Gunaratne 0

M.K. Mashud run out 37

A. Kapali lbw b Chandana 8

K. Mahmud b Muralitharan 39

M. Rafique b Arnold 13

T.K. Baishya lbw b Muralitharan 3

M.M. Islam not out 0

EXTRAS (LB-1, W-3) 4

TOTAL (all out, 47.2 overs, 186 mins) 200

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-27 (Sahariar), 2-45 (Ashraful), 3-48 (Sarker), 4-48 (Imran), 5-113 (Mashud), 6-132 (Kapali), 7-165 (Bashar), 8-184 (Rafique), 9-189 (Baishya), 10-200 (Mahmud).

BOWLING: Gunaratne 9-0-39-2 (1w), Gamage 7-0-43-1, Fernando 8-1-18-1 (1w), Muralitharan 9.2-1-24-3 (1w), Chandana 9-0-45-1, Arnold 5-0-30-1.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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