Sri Lanka keep hopes alive
Chris Dhambarage reporting from South Africa
CRICKET: Sri Lanka kept their hopes alive of reaching the
semifinals with an emphatic 64 run victory against Bangladesh in their
inaugural ICC Twenty20 World Cup tournament Super Eight match played
under lights at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
Sri Lanka’s success was mainly due to some tremendous bowling and
fielding where they restricted Bangladesh to 83 runs in 15 overs the
second lowest total in the tournament after they had struggled to reach
147 for 5 from their 20 overs.
Sri Lanka will now take on the reigning World champions Australia in
their third and final Super Eight match on September 20 at Cape Town
with the winners qualifying for the semifinals.
The seasoned campaigner Chaminda Vaas led the way with two crucial
blows during his first two overs that pushed the opposition on the
defensive. Man of the match Dilhara Fernando lived upto expectations as
one of the most economical bowlers of the tournament with two wickets
that really turned the game in Sri Lanka’s favour.
Fernando has bowled more dot balls than any other bowler in the
tournament as he produced another fine piece of bowling to fashion Sri
Lanka’s victory.
All rounder Farveez Maharoof who replaced Gayan Wijekoon also stuck
to his task with three accurate overs while the spinners Tillekeratne
Dilshan and Sanath Jayasuriya provided the back up support..Earlier Sri
Lanka after been put into bat first struggled to reach 147 for 5 from
their 20 overs. The innings was built around an unfinished sixth wicket
partnership of 51 runs between Tillekeratne Dilshan and Jehan Mubarak.
The Lankans again got off to a disappointing start while losing the
key wicket of Sanath Jayasuriya in the very first over. They never
recovered from there onwards and kept on losing wickets at regular
intervals.
Skipper Mahela Jayawardena and Kumar Sangakkara both got good starts
but just could not build up a big score against some accurate bowling
from the Bangladesh spinners. Jayawardena hit a run a ball 30 and
Sangakkara scored 20 from 29 balls but both departed while trying to
accelerate the scoring rate.
Left hander Jehan Mubarak joined Tillekeratne Dilshan and the pair
batted more intelligently to bring the total at least closer towards the
150 run mark. The feature in this stand was the excellent running
between the wickets where they displayed tremendous skill combined with
courage and determination to steal few extra runs.
Even then the entire innings produced only two sixes - one each from
Chamara Silva and Jehan Mubarak in addition to ten fours. This was a
disappointing effort considering the fact that Sri Lanka have hoisted
the most number of sixes in this tournament with a total of 24 and they
are also second in the category for the most number of boundaries with
53 to their credit.
Sri Lanka:
U. Tharanga c Rahim b Rasel 23
S. Jayasuriya c Mahmudullah b Mortaza 0
K. Sangakkara b Mahmudullah 20
M. Jayawardene b Razzak 30
C. Silva lbw b Shakib 12
T. Dilshan not out 21
J. Mubarak not out 31
Extras: (B4, LB3, W2, NB1) 10
TOTAL (for five wickets) 147
Fall of wickets: 1-5 (Jayasuriya), 2-37 (Tharanga), 3-59 (Sangakkara),
4-84 (Silva), 5-96 (Jayawardene).
Bowling: Mortaza 4-0-39-1, Rasel 4-0-26-1, Ashraful 2-0-14-0 (NB1),
Mahmudullah 4-0-19-1, Shakib 3-0-22-1, Razzak 3-0-20-1 (W2)
Bangladesh:
Tamim Iqbal c Malinga b Fernando 3
Mohammad Nazimuddin lbw b Vaas 0
Aftab Ahmed b Fernando 18
Mohammad Ashraful c Dilshan b Vaas 4
Shakib Al Hasan b Maharoof 18
Nadif Chowdhury run out 5
M. Mahmudullah c Mubarak b Jayasuriya 16
Mashrafe Mortaza b Malinga 12
Mushfiqur Rahim run out 1
Abdur Razzak c Sangakkara b Jayasuriya 5
Syed Rasel not out 0
Extras: (LB1) 1
TOTAL 83
Fall of wickets: 1-1 (Nazimuddin), 2-21 (Tamim), 3-21 (Aftab),
4-31 (Ashraful), 5-39 (Chowdhury), 6-53 (Shakib),
7-66 (Mortaza), 8-68 (Rahim), 9-81 (Mahmudullah).
Bowling: Vaas 4-0-14-2, Fernando 3-1-21-2, Maharoof 3-0-16-1,
Dilshan 2-0-19-0, Malinga 2-0-8-1, Jayasuriya 1.5-0-4-2.
Overs: 15.5
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