Sri Lanka won with seven wickets against Bangladesh 2-0 and secured with a remaining game a series victory.
Bangladesh started steadily after it had decided to strike first, but when Soumya Sarkar missed a full throw from Nuwan Pradeep and was trapped in the lead, the first signs of concern came to their minds. Such concerns escalated when Tamim Iqbal slammed a few overs later to let the visitors go.
Mushfiqur Rahim set out to rebuild the Bangladeshi innings, but at the other end, the doors continued to tumble as Dhanajaya blamed Mohammad Mithun and Mahmudullah on both changes in flight and pace.
RelatedPosts
Bangladesh continued to fall to 117/6 before Mehidy Hasan really supported Mushfiqur’s opposition as a couple that merged into an 84-member partnership. He hit six fours in his 43 before attempting to overpower a shot and miss a slower ball from Pradeep to score a simple center-half strike.
"Howzaaaat?!" pic.twitter.com/DIxc8vgGjT
— ICC (@ICC) July 28, 2019
Mushfiqur finished only two runs in the meantime before a great century when he brought his team to 238/8. His 98 * came from 110 balls with six fours and a six.
It was a slow field and Bangladesh would have had the chance to defend the overall result, but such hopes were soon dashed when young gun Avishka Fernando, with captain Dimuth Karunaratne, dominated an opening 71 goal.
After captaining Mehidy faster 15 minutes later, Fernando teamed with Kusal Perera for another 50-minute partnership before Mustafizur Rahman closed the 75-ball 82 win. He ended up being the only batsman in the game with a strike rate over 100 to finish.
Bangladesh had a glimmer of hope as Mustafizur took the Perera gate in hand, leaving Sri Lanka three times and still needed the best part of a hundred runs on a difficult terrain. However, Kusal Mendis (41 *) and Angelo Mathews (52 *) remained calm under pressure, and Sri Lanka had more than six overs on its unbroken 96-run stance.
Bangladesh is now in the final of the ODI, which will be played on the same Wednesday, in the hope that it will not come to a whitewash. To achieve this, however, more than just Mushfiqur is required to earn points.
