Lanka complete 3-0 rout of Bangladesh

BY SA'ADI Thawfeeq

BEFORE this series no one dared to say that there was going to be only one winner in the three-match contest between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh because everyone was wary at the back of their minds that the visitors were capable of upsetting the odds.

Bangladesh came to Sri Lanka with a lot of hope, to record their first win over the hosts at least in the shorter version of the game. They had not beaten Sri Lanka in 11 previous encounters.

The confidence came from their stunning victory over world champs Australia in June this year in a NatWest game played at Cardiff.

That victory at least silenced the critics who were baying for their blood to be relegated as a full member of the ICC.

But their 0-3 rout by Sri Lanka in the one-day series yesterday does not speak much of their ability to overcome the opposition even when they are playing under subcontinent conditions.

Sri Lanka won the third and final match by six wickets after rain had reduced it to a 48-over contest. Sri Lanka's target of 108 was further reduced to 106 off 46 overs when rain interrupted play during their innings.

Avishka Gunawardene contributed 52 of those runs off 61 balls. Upul Tharanga his opening partner made only nine, his first failure in three innings but was voted the man of the series for previous contributions of 60 and 105.

The biggest setback to Bangladesh in this series was their fielding and catching. Had they held onto the catches that came their way, the contest would not have proved to be so one-sided. Catches win matches is an age-old adage, which has proved to be true.

The Australians are paying dearly in England because of their poor catching, which is rather surprising for a team long regarded as one of the best in the business. If Bangladesh was to avoid a series whitewash rain was going to be their only saviour.

The weather gods gave them some false hopes causing one interruption of play, but otherwise kept away to allow the home side to complete their second 3-0 whitewash of a series against the youngest full member.

With Sri Lanka holding onto an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the series, the match aroused hardly any interest and was played to virtually an empty stadium. Only a handful of diehards, a few curious watchers and those with a lot of time on their hands were present.

Bangladesh's limitations playing against a top class one-day side like Sri Lanka even under sub continent conditions was largely exposed.

In the first two internationals, which they lost by margins of 88 runs and 75 runs, batting second Bangladesh showed the will power to last out the fifty overs. But yesterday when invited to bat first under overcast conditions and a seaming pitch they looked totally inadequate to handle the situation.

The opening pair Javed Omar and Shahriar Nafees put together 47 runs off 56 balls more with luck than pluck. That remained the best stand of the innings.

The rest of the batting could muster no more than 61 runs as man of the match Dilhara Fernando and Farveez Maharoof ripped the heart out of the Bangladesh batting sharing six wickets between them.

The two spinners Upul Chandana and Tillakaratne Dilshan, who this season is proving to be more than just a stopgap trundler, shared the remaining four.

Sri Lanka rested their big guns Marvan Atapattu, Sanath Jayasuriya, Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan, but showed they had enough and more in reserve when they bowled Bangladesh out without much ado.

BANGLADESH 

Javed Omar lbw b Fernando 			 18 
Shahriar Nafees c Tharanga b Maharoof		 21
Mohammad Rafique c Lokuhettige b Maharoof	  1
Aftab Ahmed lbw b Maharoof			  1 
Mohammad Ashraful lbw b Fernando		  0 
Habibul Bashar c Sangakkara b Fernando		  1
Thushar Imran c and b Dilshan			 13 
Khaled Mashud c Samaraweera b Chandana		  6 
Manjural Islam c Tharanga b Chandana		 17
Syed Rasel c Chandana b Dilshan			  2
Tapash Baisya not out				 11 
Extras (lb-2, nb-10, w-5)			 17 
TOTAL (all out, 38.2 overs, 164 mins)		108

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-47 (Omar), 2-51 (Rafique), 3-51 (Nafees), 
                 4-52 (Ashraful), 5-52 (Ahmed), 6-54 (Bashar),
                 7-71 (Mashud), 8-77 (Imran), 9-83 (Rasel), 
                 10-108 (Islam). 

BOWLING: Maharoof 8-2-25-3 (3nb), Lokuhettige 6-0-27-0 (3w, 1nb),
         Fernando 8-1-19-3 (2w, 6nb), Chandana 7.2-1-15-2, 
         Dilshan 9-2-20-2. 

Khaled Mahmud (super sub). 

SRI LANKA

D.A. Gunawardene c Imran b Mahmood		 52
W.U. Tharanga b Baisya				  9
D.D. Lokuhettige c Rasel b Baisya		  2
T.T. Samaraweera run out 			 18
K.C. Sangakkara not out				 17 
M.F. Maharoof not out 				  0 
Extras (lb-1, nb-2, w-5) 			  8 
TOTAL (4 wkts, 21.2 overs, 100 mins)		106

Fall of wickets: 1-24 (Tharanga), 2-30 (Lokuhettige), 
                 3-86 (Gunawardene), 4-105 (Samaraweera). 

DID NOT BAT: T.M. Dilshan, D.P.M. Jayawardene, R.P. Arnold,
             C.R.D. Fernando, U.D.U. Chandana. 

BOWLING: Baisya 7-1-27-2 (1w, 1nb), Rasel 5-0-29-0 (2w), 
         Mahmood 5.2-0-31-1 (2w, 1nb), Rafique 4-0-18-0. 

M.S. Atapattu (super sub).