Asia Cup: Hridoy's 82 goes in vain as Bangladesh lose to Sri Lanka by 21 runs

Sri Lanka continued their dominance of Bangladesh as they beat the Tigers in the Super 4 stage of the tournament by 21 runs and for the second time in the Asia Cup 2023 here on SaturdayThis win wasnrsquot easy as Sri Lanka first struggled with the bat before Sadeera Samarawickramas heroic 93 runs inning came to rescue them and guided the team to 2579 in 50 overs a defendable total on the pitch which was a tricky one to batSadeera Samarawickrama Kusal Mendis Matheesha Pathirana and Maheesh Theekshana were the stars of the showChasing the target Bangladesh started very well as they opened the batting with a 55run partnership But soon they tumbled down as they lost the next three wickets within 28 runs The rescue partnership came between Towhid Hridoy and Mushfiqur Rahim added 72 runs on the board and showed some resilienceHridoy went on to play the anchor inning for Bangladesh as he went on to score his third halfcentury in ODI cricket However his inning of 82 runs went in vain as the Tigers tailender completely lost the way in the endAlso Read Asia Cup Sri Lanka legend Sanath Jayasuriya defends Pallekele as tournament venueSkipper Dasun Shanaka gave an early shock to Bangladesh as he removed both the openers and then the young Pathirana marched on with spinner Theekshana Trio went on to pick three wickets eachEarlier in the inning Mendis and Sadeera played a handy role for Sri Lanka as they both took the team to a respectable total Sadeera went on to hit his highest score in ODI cricket and anchored the team in death overs with some big hitsFor Bangladesh it was Tasking Ahmed and Taskin Ahmed took three wickets and thus restricted the Lankans to 2579Sadeera Samarawickrama was elected lsquoPlayer of the Matchrsquo for his brilliant 93 runsBangladesh Skipper Shakib Al Hasan said Well I thought it was a good toss to win at the start We didnt bowl particularly well There was help for the bowler but we didnt get the wickets but credit goes to Sri Lanka We came back really strong but then Sadeera played very well We needed an 80100 run partnership to chase this Our top four didnt get enough runs and we didnt bowl well at the startOn the batting of Hridoy the skipper said He batted really well He played LPL here so he brought that confidence He played really well If he could have batted a little longer but then there are always a lot of ifs and butsrdquoDasun Shanaka Sri Lanka skipper said The Bangladesh bowlers bowled really well especially Hasan Mahmud so I thought if I hit the same areas it would work well so I stuck to my basics When there are no frontline bowlers someone needs to chip in and today was my day Maheesh wasnt able to bowl up front but at the end Maheesh bowled in the end and the end the result mattersrdquoThis is Sri Lankas first win in the Super 4 stage of the tournament and they will next play India on September 12Brief scoresSri Lanka 2579 in 50 overs Sadeera Samarawickrama 93 Kusal Mendis 50 Taskin Ahmed 363 Hasan Mahmud 357 beat Bangladesh 236 all out in 481 overs Towhid Hridoy 82 Dasun Shanaka 328 Matheesha Pathirana 358 by 21 runsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever